You will not find hope in the headlines. A daily reader of the news and a parent of children ages four, six, and nine, I confronted this paralyzing fact when I read this headline in early September—“Minneapolis Catholic school shooting leaves 2 children dead, 21 people injured.” As I began drafting my concluding post to this series on the theme of hope, I wondered: How do I write about hope in this context? I faced an especially steep challenge, one that had already felt formidable months ago. As I mourned the tragic shooting, I came to see more clearly: hope is, in and of itself, a chosen vocation. It requires practice, strength, and imagination—a wholehearted willingness to keep envisioning new possibilities, even when the odds feel long. Truth be told, it is the harder choice.
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