Rebecca Solnit’s “Hope in the Dark” is a book about finding hope in dark times. It has inspired us often over the past decade.
In writing about the lasting change that activists can bring about through even small and invisible acts, she compares their work to the growth of mushrooms.
Earlier this week, in the spirit of this month of Elul, a rabbinic colleague of ours, Marisa Elana James, shared the following illustration by artist Cat Lambert of Solnit’s words.
It’s a lovely visual reminder that what we do every day matters, that the small choices we make throughout our days add up, even when we don’t readily see the results.
| The full quote reads: “After a rain mushrooms appear on the surface of the earth as if from nowhere. Many come from a sometimes vast underground fungus that remains invisible and largely unknown. What we call mushrooms, mycologists call the fruiting body of the larger, less visible fungus. Uprisings and revolutions are often considered to be spontaneous, but it is the less visible long-term organising and groundwork – or underground work – that often laid the foundation.” |
