Rebecca Costa

In a fascinating new book, The Watchman's Rattle, sociobiologist Rebecca Costa, offers us another angle on hope. While I have been calling on God, the Source of life and love, Costa comes to help those of you for whom rationality, science, the mind, are the drivers of hope in our world. And what is so great, is that we don't disagree — we both feel that hope and optimism are fully justified today, even in the face of such demanding challenges. Near the end of her book, Costa writes, "No other civilization before us had such command over its environment and so many tools at its disposal to alter the course of human ascension and collapse. And, therefore, no other civilization has had so much cause for optimism." (The Watchman's Rattle, pg. 268) She goes on to quote poet Adrienne Rich, who wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." Costa asks us, "Will we restore the balance of knowledge and beliefs and allow uncommon insights to cure what ails humanity?" Rabbi Levy, Father Boyle, Rebecca Costa, Mike Moore, Ronit Avni, the breast cancer survivors, the Israelis and Palestinians joining hands, you and me: together we are the hope of God in the fog of our lives. Hope will find us and we can emerge from darkness to light. That is the message of the sociobiologist and that is the message of God, both paths leading to one conclusion: Al Tirah, Fear Not. Hope will find us.