Shining a light on HOPE

Poster art by Shephard Fairey

Today I randomly paused to look at one of my bookmarked websites, for a publication called Works That Work subtitled “a magazine of unexpected creativity.” I saved it several years ago, soon after stepping down as dean, as a way to refocus on positive, productive creativity across the world. I thought I would get back to it frequently, but I did not. It was published twice a year, edited by Peter Biľak, a Czechoslovakian designer based in the Netherlands. To my surprise, today as I looked at Issue #10, I saw the heading “all good things must come to an end.”

I read Biľak’s final editorial, which says, “People like stability, the security of being able to keep things as they are in defiance of the basic law of nature which says that everything that has a beginning also has an end. Once in a while, however, we have the luxury of choosing an end, planning a conclusion that is timely, satisfying, even joyful.” He went on to explain that his goal had always been to publish 10 issues over five years, then to end the project on a high. “I believe we should be intentional about designing ends as well as beginnings.”

Each of the ten issues of Work that Works includes many thoughtful, well researched and beautifully presented essays. They are available for purchase through the magazine’s website, and though I did not absorb their inspiration as they were published, I look forward to reading them now. They are found at https://worksthatwork.com

I found myself unsettled that the publication had ended, and thought to check other bookmarked websites. To my surprise, several other bodies of work I thought I would read for inspiration are now no longer active. Biľak is right: all good things do come to an end. Somehow, in these past few years, the tide has turned, and the enthusiasm for creative start-ups has morphed into overpriced IPOs, dark stories from the tech world, and increased concentration of wealth.

As it happens, today marks five years since I stepped down as dean at U. Va. Although I did not articulate it at the time, I was blessed to have the luxury of choosing that ending—when I had completed what I’d promised to do, while greatly expanding my professional horizons, and making many new friends. I remain grateful for the opportunity to serve, satisfied with my contributions at Virginia, and thankful I choose to leave when I did.

These past few years, though, have taken a different course than I could have imagined. As I set out to do, I have developed a consistent studio practice, taught myself several necessary software programs, and worked in the Gainesville community focusing on the nexus of entrepreneurship and our Eastside, African American community, neighborhoods’ infrastructures, and, more recently, housing. All good.

What struck me today, as I deleted websites devoted to creativity and entrepreneurship, is how much the world around us has changed. The energy that emerged during President Obama’s administration, driven in part by the need to reinvent opportunity following the crash of 2008, and in part by the Obama administration’s perfect balance of compassion and high expectations, has morphed into something else.

I suspect that many who were pouring energy into creating a better world in 2014 are now turning that same focus towards protecting 50 years’ civil rights and environmental advances. For some, the constant assaults of the past few years have been far more personal. Even for those of us not defending ourselves or our loved ones, seeing the best of the project of democracy unravel leaves us all with frayed nerves, cocooning rather than creating.

I am among many people who valued President and Mrs. Obama during their time in office—their quiet determination during a very difficult global economic time, their grace as they and their family were attacked baselessly and personally, the light they shone on aspects of culture unknown to many (the “mike drop,” wearing a “J. Crew ensemble,” basketball as a presidential sport). In many ways, including but not only economically, we are living off the fumes of the Obama era. Their ending, as they kindly helped the next First Lady enter the White House when her husband forgot her, punctuated that moment and ended a well-lived chapter of our lives, and of world history.

Reflecting on the changes that have taken places these past few years, I wonder how I, and we, might transform the energy we find around us today, retracing that long arc of the moral universe? Put more simply, how can we reignite HOPE?