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

Lutheran, The, Oct 2004 by Brussat, Frederic, Brussat, Mary Ann

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Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat's reviews are available on the Web. For more information on something reviewed in this column, visit www.SpiritualityHealth.com. More than 5,000 reviews exist in the database, and new ones are added every Friday.

BOOK

The Impossible Will Take a Little while: A Citizen's Guide to Keeping Hope Alive in a Time of Fear by Paul RogatLoeb is a soul-stirring anthology of 50 essays that we guarantee will lift the spirits of anyone looking for reasons to carry on in the struggle to create a better world. In chapters on " seeds of the Possible," "Dark Before the Dawn," "Everyday Grace," 'The Flight of Our Dreams," "Courage Is Contagious," "The Global Stage," "Radical Dignity," "Beyond Hope" and "Only justice Can Stop a Curse," Loeb presents inspiring essays and excerpts from Nelson Mandela, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Henri Nouwen, Parker Palmer, Walter Wink, Sister Rosalie Bertell, Jim Wallis, Cornel West, Terry Tempest Williams, Desmond Tutu and many others.

Some of our favorite pieces help us remember that peril and despair breed hope, not helplessness. Check out Marion Wright Edelman's passionate plea on behalf of children; savor Howard Zinn's wise thoughts on the optimism of uncertainty; let Scott Russell Sanders enthrall you with his essay on hope across the generations; take in the profundity of Tony Kushner's reflections on despair as a lie we tell ourselves; and ponder the power in Arundhati Roy's observations on Sept. 11 and global justice. Doubts, fear, emotional burnout and "compassion fatigue" will always eat at our resources of hope. That's when it's good to have a book like this handv (Basic Books. 2004).