The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear

by Loeb, Paul Rogat

• ISBN13: 9780465041664
• ISBN10: 0465041663
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-17
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

InThe Impossible Will Take a Little While, a phrase borrowed from Billie Holliday, the editor ofSoul of a Citizenbrings together fifty stories and essays that range across nations, eras, wars, and political movements. Danusha Goska, an Indiana activist with a paralyzing physical disability, writes about overcoming political immobilization, drawing on her history with the Peace Corps and Mother Teresa. Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, finds value in seemingly doomed or futile actions taken by oppressed peoples. Rosemarie Freeney Harding recalls the music that sustained the civil rights movement, and Paxus Calta-Star recounts the powerful vignette of an 18-year-old who launched the overthrow of Bulgaria's dictatorship. Many of the essays are new, others classic works that continue to inspire. Together, these writers explore a path of heartfelt community involvement that leads beyond despair to compassion and hope. The voices collected inThe Impossible Will Take a Little Whilewill help keep us all working for a better world despite the obstacles.

Author Biography

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen and three other books. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He is an associated scholar at Seattle's Center for Ethical Leadership and lives in Seattle, Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(15)
ONE: SEEDS OF THE POSSIBLE
From The Cure at Troy	16	(2)
Seamus Heaney
Introduction	18	(4)
A Slender Thread	22	(8)
Diane Ackerman
Ordinary Resurrections	30	(7)
Jonathan Kozol
Standing Up for Children	37	(10)
Marian Wright Edelman
Political Paralysis	47	(16)
Danusha Veronica Goska
TWO: DARK BEFORE THE DAWN
From September 1, 1939	58	(1)
W. H. Auden
Introduction	59	(4)
The Optimism of Uncertainty	63	(10)
Howard Zinn
The Dark Years	73	(9)
Nelson Mandela
An Orientation of the Heart	82	(17)
Vaclav Havel
THREE: EVERYDAY GRACE
The Peace of Wild Things	92	(1)
Wendell Berry
From Last Night As I Was Sleeping	93	(1)
Antonio Machado
Introduction	94	(5)
Mountain Music	99	(7)
Scott Russell Sanders
The Sukkah of Shalom	106	(5)
Arthur Waskow
Getting Our Gaze Back	111	(3)
Rose Marie Berger
Fragile and Hidden	114	(2)
Henri Nouwen
There Is a Season	116	(16)
Parker Palmer
FOUR: THE FLIGHT OF OUR DREAMS
Celebration of the Human Voice	126	(1)
Eduardo Galeano
Introduction	127	(5)
Childhood and Poetry	132	(2)
Pablo Neruda
To Love the Marigold	134	(7)
Susan Griffin
Walking with the Wind	141	(4)
John Lewis
Freedom Songs	145	(2)
Rosemarie Freeney Harding
Rough Translation	147	(2)
Toni Mirosevich
Jesus and Alinsky	149	(12)
Walter Wink
Stories from the Cha Cha Cha	161	(2)
Vern Huffman
Do Not Go Gentle	163	(6)
Sherman Alexie
Despair Is a Lie We Tell Ourselves	169	(14)
Tony Kushner
FIVE: COURAGE IS CONTAGIOUS
To Be of Use	174	(1)
Marge Piercy
Introduction	175	(8)
The Small Work in the Great Work	183	(8)
Victoria Safford
In What Do I Place My Trust?	191	(5)
Rosalie Bertell
Not Deterred	196	(2)
Paxus Calta-Star
Rebellion Is What Built America	198	(5)
Jim Hightower
Faith Works	203	(4)
Jim Wallis
Composing a Life Story	207	(23)
Mary Catherine Bateson
SIX: THE GLOBAL STAGE
Imagine the Angels of Bread	218	(3)
Martin Espada
Introduction	221	(9)
Come September	230	(11)
Arundhati Roy
The Black Hole	241	(10)
Ariel Dorfman
Hope for Human Rights	251	(3)
Kenneth Roth
The Green Dream	254	(10)
Mark Hertsgaard
Curitiba	264	(17)
Bill McKibben
SEVEN: RADICAL DIGNITY
From Natural Resources	274	(1)
Adrienne Rich
How Have You Spent Your Life?	275	(1)
Jalaluddin Rumi
Introduction	276	(5)
Letter from Birmingham Jail	281	(7)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Real Rosa Parks	288	(5)
Paul Rogat Loeb
Prisoners of Hope	293	(5)
Cornel West
Behemoth in a Bathrobe	298	(4)
Carla Seaquist
Road to Redemption	302	(6)
Billy Wayne Sinclair
Resisting Terror	308	(20)
Peter Ackerman
Jack DuVall
EIGHT: BEYOND HOPE
Origami Emotion	320	(1)
Elizabeth Barrette
From The New York Poem	321	(1)
Sam Hamill
Introduction	322	(6)
Staying the Course	328	(4)
Mary-Wynne Ashford
The Elm Dance	332	(9)
Joanna Macy
Hoping Against Hope	341	(3)
Nadezhda Mandelstam
The Inevitability Trap	344	(2)
K. C. Golden
Sonya Vetra Tinsley, as told to Paul Rogat Loeb, You Have to Pick Your Team	346	(2)
From Hope to Hopelessness	348	(13)
Margaret Wheatley
NINE: ONLY JUSTICE CAN STOP A CURSE
Still I Rise	354	(2)
Maya Angelou
Introduction	356	(5)
Only Justice Can Stop a Curse	361	(7)
Alice Walker
The Clan of One-Breasted Women	368	(10)
Terry Tempest Williams
Next Year in Mas'Ha	378	(5)
Starhawk
The Gruntwork of Peace	383	(7)
Amos Oz
No Future Without Forgiveness	390	(7)
Desmond Tutu
Acknowledgments	397	(4)
Credits	401	(8)
About the Editor	409	(4)
Index	413