My Hopes for the Future
Good afternoon, L’shanah Tovah. Like all of us, I have many hopes for the future. For starters:
I hope that our society has universally agreed-upon, consistent, knowable values, with a common understanding of what it means to treat another person with kindness & dignity. That those mores don’t change depending on a change in our circumstances at any given time.
Along those lines, I hope that one of the basic values that are agreed upon is that it is wrong to harm someone else, in words or actions, and that we each consciously undertake efforts every day to avoid inflicting any such damage on each other.
I hope that people aren’t so self-absorbed & focused on what’s in it for them. That just living doesn’t feel like survival, or a zero-sum game, all the time. That, instead, people consider what is best for the common good when making our laws, establishing our mores, & dividing up resources.
I hope that people don’t see others who live differently from them as a threat. Eg, That people don’t care who others love or what gender, if any, someone presents in public. I ask myself often, “WHY do people care about these things? WHY aren’t they worrying more about how we are going to clothe, feed & house those in need so that everyone can lead healthy & fulfilling lives?”
In the future I hope . . . that mental illness is no longer stigmatized. That it is ok to share with folks the disabilities, both physical & mental, that you might be dealing with, without any judgment. And that people will accept you and try to understand & appreciate how your life may be different from theirs because of those experiences.
I hope that when we interact with one another, whether stranger, friend, foe, we recognize that we don’t truly know what that person has gone through in life and the effects of those experiences on their thoughts & actions. And so we give them some grace, even if they cut us off on the highway, take too long checking out at the store, hold up the bus because they’re asking the driver for directions, yell something offensive, or try to tell us what to do.
I hope that our society is no longer run & controlled predominantly by men; that women are real leaders in our country and throughout the world, not just in title, and respected as such by men & women alike. Kudos to Sinai for that!! I hope that women’s thoughts, feelings, experiences, & voices are listened to & incorporated into how our country is run, eg, that it is no longer debatable that women fully & exclusively control their bodies & lives.
I hope for a universal recognition that the color of one’s skin does indeed matter and is therefore taken into consideration in our interactions with one another. By this I mean that, depending on your skin color, you have understandably had very different experiences in life, based on the history of your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., which should be taken into account in how we treat one another. And that those experiences are of equal importance in helping to shape our society’s values.
I hope that Israel exists without the constant threat of destruction. That our fellow Jews in Israel can truly live in peace bc Israel’s neighbors learn & understand that the history of our people is inextricably tied to persecution, and the world universally agrees that must finally end.
Are these things really too much to ask for? They seem so obvious and basic to me and many of you here, I hope. Is it possible that, if we each pledge to work on these things — or even just one of these things — in the next year, we’ll get a little closer to this future I envision? I don’t know. But I can & will keep hoping.
And, lastly, I hope for each of you a new year filled with happy times with those you love, much health & peace of mind. And, as my mother would say, a little prosperity wouldn’t hurt either. Thank you. L’shanah Tovah.