We were wondering what to wish for the New Year. We were thinking of the interconnection between peace and justice (so that the first is not something dead, similar to the peace you find in cemeteries), but also the interrelationship between tenderness and justice (so that the second is not inflexible, as it often happens with the letter of the law). We were pondering on the importance of love, but even this can become an issue of privilege, especially when it ends up in the hands of the wrong people. (How many crimes haven’t been committed in the name of love that is empty of meaning?)
What could we wish for that does not reflect the exercises of the white Western world privileges?
Hence, we turn to an older text from Václav Havel on hope – because this is exactly what we wish for as we are entering 2026: more hope, let’s all work together toward hope (because is something you act upon, not something that is given).
“The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it’s a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.”
Vaclav Havel “The kind of hope I often think about” in Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvizdala (New York: Vintage Books, 1990:181).
