Hope & Optimism

10 Feb Hope & Optimism

11 February 2025

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

I spent the better part of last weekend cutting up wood in my backyard. My wonderful white pines had shed several not-so-small limbs, four other trees needed pruning, and I had determined to take two of our lilac trees down to the ground. So I rented a chainsaw for the weekend and got to work.

The lilacs had probably been planted around the time the house was built – in 1948. Following a practice common at the time, they had been strategically placed underneath windows to bring welcome scents of Spring into the bedrooms, and for 75 years they had done exactly that. But now they were barely blooming at all, and some of their primary branches were visibly rotting. It was time.

The realization, and the metaphor, hit me about halfway through the work – it had taken about 75 years for those lilacs to grow to the state they were in last weekend. It took me about 75 seconds to take them down to the ground.

Building takes a long time. Destruction – deconstruction – can happen in a matter of seconds.

My tolerance for news these days is down to an abysmal 2-3 minutes per day. The deconstruction happening at the federal level right now is wrenching and heartbreaking. It’s hard to watch. I waffle between powerless despair and a raging anger. I’m somewhere in the seven stages of grief and can’t even begin to see acceptance yet.

I know I’m not alone. Good people are being laid-off or fired because they were funded by grants. The hand-wringing has started as land trusts everywhere are rethinking their bold Black Lives Matter and DEI statements. Fear is palpable and everywhere.

Yesterday, I found these two quotes that lifted my spirits for the day. Maybe they will help raise yours as well:

We don’t have the right to ask whether we’re going to succeed or not. The only question we have the right to ask is “What’s the right thing to do?”

Wendell Berry

Hope is NOT the conviction that something will turn out well, but rather the certainty that something is worth doing regardless of how it turns out.

Vaclav Havel

And those quotes prompted me to revisit a blog I posted in December of 2022 on Hope and Optimism. I will excerpt it here, but if you want to read the whole thing, here’s the link: https://developmentforconservation.com/2022/hope-optimism/

I started thinking about how optimism might be different than hope, and how that difference might be relevant in conservation and fundraising.

The research journey was an interesting one. There was far more to learn about the topic that I would have imagined and there are hundreds of scientific papers on the subject.

According to the dictionary, optimism is “confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favorable or hopeful view.” Hope is the “expectation of something desired; desire combined with expectation.”

Hope is considered specific to a defined event or outcome, whereas Optimism is considered event-independent. And there’s also an implication with Hope that a pathway for getting there exists – that you can control or at least influence what happens. Optimism carries an assumption of a positive outcome regardless of one’s own actions.

For a long time, Optimism was considered a genetic trait – that some people were just born optimistic. Research involving twins concluded that environmental factors are much more influential.

Both Hope and Optimism are considered positive mental states and correlated with personal resiliency, but Hope contributes more to emotional well-being. The idea that there is a path to success and that your own actions can make a difference is a powerful motivator for action – including giving money to a land trust.

And that’s where this really comes together for me. We need to be optimistic as fundraisers. We have to believe that positive outcomes are possible, or we won’t get very far. (My rose-colored glasses are always half-full.)

But we must also communicate that optimism effectively to our stakeholders – to communicate Hope.

So, let’s all do a body-check on our own levels of optimism and hope. Let’s get in touch with our own sense of hope – that a pathway exists and that our own actions can make a difference. Will make a difference. That we have “agency.”

And let’s collectively communicate that Hope to our various constituencies. That their actions can make a difference. Will make a difference. That they have “agency” too.

I am certain that what we are doing both individually and collectively is worth doing regardless of how it turns out. I know you are, too.

So …

Take good care of yourself, even to the point of limiting news feeds.

Grieve – and through the sense of loss, understand that your appreciation for what was lost has been heightened.

Realize the fruits of your labor – get out in Nature and cleanse.

Understand that now, more than ever, we can offer other people something tangible that will make a difference – that IS making a difference. We can offer that to ourselves, too.

Overcome your fear – do not self-censor. Evil triumphs when good people stand by and do nothing.

Trust yourself and find others you can trust – we need to restart somewhere.

And most of all, Lean in to hope. Communicate that a pathway exists and that our own actions can make a difference. Will make a difference. That we have “agency.” You may not be optimistic, but what you are doing is worthwhile. Of that I am certain.

What’s the right thing to do?

Cheers and Have a Good Week!

-da

PS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

Photo by NaturEyes courtesy of stocksnap.io.