By Joseph Ross
December 1st might be the most important-unknown date in American history. On this day in 1955. 55 years ago today, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus. She was a 42 year-old seamstress who had just finished a day of work. As the bus filled, she refused to give up her seat to a white man, and so she was arrested. She didn’t stand up or give up. She stayed put in a great act of exhausted courage. She knew what it meant to hope.
I’m grateful to the editors of Tidal Basin Review for their invitation to be December’s Guest Blogger. Randall Horton and Melanie Henderson, with the help of others, have created a beautiful and necessary journal. I commend their nerve and their hard work.
I plan to post often this month. With that in mind, I have asked others for some help. December, with its major holidays, can be a beautiful time of year and it can be trying. All the scenes and songs about “Peace on Earth” can be rough when we look closely at the world. One thing I know I always need at this time of year is hope.
Hope is that attitude that looks at what we have, sees it truthfully, and yearns to make it better. Hope necessarily sees what is not yet present, yet it does not sit still there. Hope imagines, given the current reality, how life could be more kind, more just. With those thoughts in mind, I have asked several poets and writers, friends of mine, to share a brief reflection here on hope. You will see those reflections scattered throughout the blog postings this month. Visit often!
the basin blog 