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Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president that helped to bring down the Communist dictatorship in his country, once said that the difference between hope and optimism is that optimists believe with conviction that everything will turn out well while those with hope are certain, that the outcome good or bad, will eventually make sense; they will find meaning in either. In his book Logotherapy, Victor Frankl refers to his time in a Nazi concentration camp, and said the only way he made it through was by “finding meaning in his suffering.” Finding meaning gave him hope. This ability to give meaning to any situation is uniquely human and one of the most under-utilized homo sapien characteristics. Our current course of self-destruction, avarice and arrogance will surely doom us, if we don’t collectively get a conscience and impart some meaning to what we have done to the earth and its inhabitants. Without a critical mass of people to change course, shift trajectory, and create the defining moment now, I don’t know whether we’ll make our way out of our current global mess or not. I’m optimistic that we can, and if we can’t, I HOPE that something is learned by the survivors of our poor choices; that they give meaning to what happened before them. To reference the author, Malcolm Gladwell, society needs a Tipping Point to avert its own demise. We need an epidemic of common sense and kindness, love and courage. Will you be a part of the movement? To read a great book about hope in cynical times, I encourage you to check out: The Impossible Will Take A While by Paul Rogat Loeb. It’s a great collection of essays on hope and the power of individuals by some of our finest authors, visionaries and leaders.