"...hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was listening to MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech yesterday and all these great words kept jumping out at me. It's way more powerful listening to it than just reading it. And you've got to listen to the whole thing. But the words around hope in particular - his words are full of hope and this kept jumping out at me - even though we have so much farther to go, there is hope to "make real the promises of democracy."

Reminded me of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams, where Hallie tells Codi that the very least she can do is figure our what she hopes for and live inside that hope.

Also reminded me of Jim Wallis' visit here Friday, telling the story of being in a South Africa still under apartheid, when Desmond Tutu preached, and when the army broke into the church, how Tutu told them they had already lost and they should join the winning side. And how the men with guns let the congregation leave without arrests. This is hope unlike any I have known. It's not rational, logical, reasonable, or prudent. It could be considered madness. And yet there is something so profound about it, makes me want to grab it and not let go.