I am disturbed by the increasing reports of young people who get hooked on opioid drugs. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, every day more than 90 Americans die from overdosing.
What’s going on, we wonder? In the late 1990s, health care providers were told opioid pain relievers were non-addictive, thus over-prescribed them. Unused bottles in our bathroom closets are temptations. People are looking for another drug high. But I believe that underlying any reason is the loss of hope.
The world is in turmoil. Terrorist and nuclear threats loom on the horizon. Rapid changes in social values, technology, job security, can make us think there is nothing to hold on to.
In the Bible, hope is one of the three major spiritual virtues, joining faith and love. “Hope” may be the more essential virtue, because the opposite of hope is despair. Despair says there is nothing that we can do to move toward a better future. So why try?
Let’s face it: To sustain a sense of hope is challenging. “It is hard to have hope,” is the first line in a poem on “hope” by Wendell Berry.
It is a “difficult hope,” but a hope that arises from actions and protests that seek better answers to local, national or international problems. Realizing that change does not come quickly, we know we haven't given in to injustice or despair, and that continues to nurture hope in our hearts.
I’m Connie Seraphine, and that is my perspective.
