I am still reading Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit and is it ever wonderful! Y’all have to read it for yourselves, truly. In the meantime though, it got me thinking about maybe having a semi-regular, with option to become regular, feature on Mondays to post a quote (or two) from recent reading that might be a bit of food for thought. It’s a not so sneaky way of sharing quotes that I can’t always fit in when I do a whole post about a book. Or maybe it’s just a tricksy way to be lazy on Mondays. You can take your pick on that one.
 
At first I thought I’d call it “Manic Monday” and then I had the unfortunate experience of having the Bangles song running through my head all afternoon. Since that is a 1980s earworm I don’t wish to inflict on anyone I went in search of an alternative. No appropriate alliterations or useful Monday songs came to mind. I did, however, land on Ray Charles and who doesn’t like Ray Charles? On his album Genius and Friends he has a song I love called “Shout” that never fails to lift my spirits:
 

 
Who couldn’t use a little boost on Mondays? Plus, “Shout it out Mondays” while not having an alliterative zing to it, does work pretty well for sharing a quote. Of course, now I think more about it, this could be a roaming kind of day, one you never know when it might show up – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – you get the idea. And now it has just come to me that “Food For Thought Friday” would be a great day with alliterative zing. Jiminy Cricket, I really do have Monday Brain today and not just any Monday Brain but Looking Forward to Thanksgiving on Thursday Monday Brain. I’m a mess!
 
Shout It Out Monday/Food For Thought Friday (early), whatever this is today and whether or not this quote day idea ever pops up again, I have babbled enough. Here’s Rebecca Solnit from Hope in the Dark for you:

To hope is to gamble. It’s to bet on the future, on your deisres, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk. I say all this because hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. I say it because hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency; because hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.