A posture of hope

Most of us have participated in conversations in which someone mentions a discouraging political trend or societal crisis of the day. That’s usually when other participants weigh in with their own take on present gloom. From there the shape of the conversation deteriorates rapidly. Good cheer gets replaced by a cloud of pessimism. Only a shift to idle chatter about the weather tends to rescue the moment. Despair is easy to come by in anxious and divided times.

But there is another way. We can choose to live with a posture of hope instead of a disposition of dread. In fact, when you open any issue of this magazine, I want you to see our commitment to hope. That’s both our legacy at the Century and how we wish to be known. To be for good and important things in life is more noble than merely being against disturbing events and trends.

One of the greatest gifts God hands to each of us is our ability to choose. Through our choices we become certain kinds of people or, in the case of journalistic decision making, a certain sort of magazine. Attitudinal choices and adjustments in outlook—when we are able to make them—reveal what kind of people we get to become. David Sipress captures this truth in his New Yorker cartoon featuring a couple walking the beach at sunset. They’ve obviously been arguing. “All right, Stephanie,” the man says exasperatedly. “You win. It’s great to be alive!”