Northern Expressions: Hang On To Your Hat

Happy Friday, friends!

I’ll be honest. The news this week (and previous weeks) has really started to weigh on me. Darkness feels like it’s closing in so much. But then I read this FANTASTIC letter written by E.B. White (known as the author of Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web) in 1973. It’s worth repeating the entire letter:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society—things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Sincerely,

(Signed, ‘E. B. White’)

Man. Nailed it. The whole thing is so amazing. So, friends, let us be those upright men and compassionate women. And let’s hope tomorrow is the day the darkness clears. Hope is the only thing that is left to us.

Love, Maggie