How to Be Hopeful: Your Toolkit to Rediscover Hope and Help Create a Kinder World by Bernadette Russell

Author:Bernadette Russell [Russell, Bernadette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Self-Help, Christian Living, Inspirational, BODY; MIND & SPIRIT, Motivational & Inspirational, Inspiration & Personal Growth
ISBN: 9781728245591
Google: nXn-zQEACAAJ
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-11-15T23:33:48.519927+00:00

Nothing demonstrates the importance of collective action more than a crisis or a tragedy. When something of this nature occurs, it’s hard to witness and experience the suffering that goes with it, but seeing people pull together can nevertheless be inspiring, and—as with the recent pandemic—can help create the hope that there is a way to get through it.

On the morning of Wednesday June 14, 2017, I got up at 5 :00 a.m. and checked social media and the TV news to see what was happening in the world. What I saw was horrific—a tower block engulfed in flames.

I volunteered to help coordinate the donations that poured in as people across the country responded to the lives lost and changed forever by that awful fire at Grenfell Tower in West London. Outside Kensington Town Hall, I saw a van unloading a huge amount of bottled water, and people carrying bags and pushing trolleys full of food, clothes, and toys. Everywhere there were piles of donations of all kinds. It was incredible to see such goodwill in the face of such horror.

The council workers had organized lunch for the volunteers, and we all had a chance to talk to each other. It was then that I realized how far people had come to help and what they had sacrificed to do so—taking hours off work and foregoing their pay, staying on friends’ sofas, donating their time and energy.

For the next few weeks, there were some incredible stories of what people were doing for Grenfell victims and survivors: Jo Maugham QC offering free legal advice to survivors; Marks & Spencer sending a refrigerated truck to help preserve perishable food donations; local religious groups, businesses, and individuals offering temporary accommodation, money, and food to those affected. We Londoners, accustomed to being told that we’re an unfriendly and uncaring bunch, were inspired, proud of our city, encouraged, and humbled by the response.

There is still a lot of grief and anger about Grenfell and the deaths of seventy-two people—and rightly so, especially as many questions remain unanswered about the events of that terrible day. The campaign group Grenfell United, composed of survivors and bereaved families, continue to work for safe homes, justice and change, and it has provided a platform for people to find their voices and to express pain and anger, as well as hopes and plans for the future. The strongest desire is that this never happens again and is never forgotten. Yet I think it’s vital we remember how people helped each other. We’re often told that people don’t care, but the public response to the Grenfell fire, the volunteers and support groups that sprang up afterward to help the bereaved as well as the children and their families who survived, are reminders of how ready we are to help each other. We can allow ourselves to find hope in the essential goodness of human beings, knowing that in the aftermath of tragedies, of natural or human-made disasters, it is not selfishness that usually prevails but generosity and kindness.

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