Holiday Post 2016: The Audacity of Hope by Arlene Miller, The Grammar Diva

Hope. The usual cheer that is part of the holiday season may be diminished for many of us this year. Our hope for the future may have dimmed. Our families may be divided, much as the country is. For many, the holiday season is never very cheerful, as loneliness moves in. I usually write a holiday post, often with quotes about some aspect of the season. This year I have chosen quotes about hope, and I have “stolen” the title of the post from President Obama’s book and famous speech.  I “hope” you find some of the quotes reassuring; some may actually make you sad as you think of what might have been and what might be instead. And some of you may be hopeful the way things are. Whichever the case, I hope you draw meaning from the post and joy or solace from the season. 

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check; we’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. Barack Obama 

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up. Anne Lamott

While there’s life, there’s hope. Cicero

There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them. Clare Booth Luce

Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all. Emily Dickinson 

History is moving, and it will tend toward hope, or tend toward tragedy. George W. Bush 

Hope, like the gleaming taper’s light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray. Oliver Goldsmith

Take hope from the heart of man, and you make him a beast of prey. Quida

Hope is necessary in every condition. Samuel Johnson

The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. Stephen Ambrose 

Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair. Thomas Hobbes 

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Helen Keller

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Desmond Tutu

A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. Brad Henry

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us. Samuel Smiles

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one. John Lennon

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. Abraham Lincoln

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own. Michelle Obama

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Robert Kennedy

We talk a lot about hope, helping, and teamwork. Our whole message is that we are more powerful together. Victoria Osteen

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe. Dalai Lama

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. Nelson Mandela

The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world. James Madison

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon. Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope. George Eliot

Stalinism is linked with a cult of personality and massive violations of the law, with repression and camps. There is nothing like that in Russia and, I hope, will never again be. Vladimir Putin (I couldn’t resist!)

Never lose hope.    Unknown, Polish Slogan

Thank you to these websites for the quotes:  https://www.brainyquote.com   www.quotationspage.com/

HAPPY HOLIDAYS  FROM THE GRAMMAR DIVA TO YOU AND YOURS!

The Many Sides of Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Part 1: Black Friday

Unless you live under a large rock, you know that Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving, which marks the  beginning of the Christmas shopping season: big crowds, small prices (maybe).  Where did the term “Black Friday ” come from? What does it mean?

Because we don’t often read about the meaning of the phrase, people have invented their own explanations for how the phrase became attached to the day after Thanksgiving. One incorrect explanation is that  it all started with a tradition of slave owners or slave traders using that day  to sell slaves.  Black Friday has nothing to do with the selling of slaves: in fact, the  term didn’t originate until nearly a century after slavery was abolished.

Another explanation of “Black Friday” originates from 1951, referring to the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, giving them a four-day weekend. (that day was not yet commonly offered as a paid day off by employers).  
(more…)