Hope

A User's Manual

By: MaryAnn McKibben Dana

Narrated by: Maryann Mckibben Dana

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

What hope is, what hope isn't, and how to find it in hopeless times.

How do we cultivate hope to face each day? How do we find the energy to persevere, knowing things don't always work out ok, no matter what the platitudes say? How do we pursue the work of justice, knowing that the task is too big for any of us?

This audiobook addresses these questions. It's MaryAnn's attempt to write herself back into a sense of hope after a grueling few years of life and world events.

Though this is not a pandemic audiobook, listeners will see Covid-19's hulking presence from time to time, as well as the looming specter of climate change and the urgent work of confronting racial and economic injustice. Also braided in these stories are MaryAnn's experience walking with her daughter through a debilitating depression. The family found hope hiding in unexpected nooks and crannies in that journey. Hope also lurks in tattooed wisdom from a beloved children's book, in Marvel movies, on the running trail, and in a sweater full of holes.

One thing is certain: real hope demands that we do something with it. That we live it out. That we use hope to participate in a bigger story playing out behind the bleak world we see on the news or in our social media feeds every day.

Whether you're a person of faith, or someone disillusioned with faith, or someone who hardly ever thinks about faith: if you're a human being who longs for a spiritual counternarrative to live by, this audiobook points to one resilient enough to endure crises and crushing defeats. If you're tired of hearing about some heavenly hereafter amid the pressing need for justice here and now, this is an audiobook about hope for this world.

Sections include:

• What hope is not.
• What hope is.
• Hope lives in the body.
• Hope travels in story.
• The practice of hope.
• Hope beyond hope.

©2022 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (P)2022 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

I used the “Pass/Fail method”

Full disclosure… the author is my daughter. I’ve had this book since I pre-ordered it and started the reading with zeal when it came to me, I worked each “exercise” for each chapter and vowed I wouldn’t read on unless I had time to do this. But today, I’m attending a discussion of the book and I was less than halfway through, given the strict guideline I set for myself to finish the chapter and exercise before moving forward. So I’ve spent the last few hours completing the audio book and I’m ready to discuss the whole book with the book club. I’ll go back and re-read the reflections and “work” the exercises. I gave myself permission to utilize the bit of the chapter on pass/fail by not “doing” this book perfectly but doing it nonetheless. The audio book is well done in the author’s voice and there is even a sweet song hidden in the text which is sung beautifully by MaryAnn. Read or listen (or both) to this helpful hopeful book.

This book was a gift

Occasionally I come across a book that is more than interesting or challenging or even comforting—it feels like being cared for. This is such a book.

Required Reading for 21st Century Spirituality

We live in an increasingly absurd nightmare of climate change, late stage Capitalism, and increasing totalitarianism. This course on Hope is to be practiced daily dealing with the difficulties of our world as they are. There are no easy answers or magical, optimistic way out, but there is a way through-courageously and together. The author's narration lends a power to her personal stories and examples. Amazing and timely.