11 Comments
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Constance Hastings's avatar

Thank you for these words. In the midst of all we see, there is hope when we choose to know it.

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Drew Brown's avatar

Thank you very much Constance! That really means a lot to me :)

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Garrett Struwe's avatar

Wow Drew, thank you for this! It resonates a lot with me.

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Drew Brown's avatar

Garrett you are the man--thank you!

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John Blase's avatar

Thanks for this, Drew. Really.

Although it may be splitting hairs at the end of the day, Norman Maclean made a distinction between catastrophe and tragedy—catastrophe being a godless narrative absent of hope, whereas tragedy, although equally painful, held threads of redemption.

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Drew Brown's avatar

John, wow, I really like that distinction. Thank you for sharing that. Sometimes it's hard to believe something is a tragedy when redemption feels impossible. I'm grateful for your words.

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Miriam Wei Wei Lo's avatar

Yes. The tension.

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Drew Brown's avatar

Thank you so much Miriam!

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Ellie Darden's avatar

Beautiful. Thank you.

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Drew Brown's avatar

Thank you!

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Tiffany Ciccone's avatar

You organized this so creatively. I want to learn and try more creative structures myself. So, thanks for the inspiration!

Also, this exploration reminds me of these words by CS Lewis. I think they came from his essay, “Learning in Wartime” (or something like that?):

“The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb, when it comes, find us doing sensible and human things -- praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts -- not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs.”

Somehow this comforts and encourages me. 💓

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