What bubbles up

This was a window we passed in downtown Seattle while driving through around Christmas time. I loved the inventiveness of the bubbles, though I'm not exactly clear what relationship they have to the purses. Is our economy going under? (Well, duh!) And if so, wouldn't we be keeping the old purses instead of buying new ones?

But perhaps these bubbles are not meant to imply that we're under water, money-wise, but rather that new possibilities are bubbling up which will bring new riches!

All of which goes to show -- as we discussed at length in my spirituality group yesterday -- that curious differential between suffering and pain, and its dependence on attitude. Stuff happens, and life can be a beach (as all those bumper stickers say). But what really affects us most, ties our stomachs up in knots or awakens new creativity in us, is how we choose to handle it. And I'm thinking that maybe what fuels our ability to respond with generativity rather than depression is our capacity to hope: as long as we have hope that things can change, and/or that we can make a difference, then it does seem possible to rise above our surface difficulties.

Which is why, despite all the bad news (I mean, 50,000 people were laid off yesterday? Imagine all those sinking hearts!) people still believe it will be possible to turn this around. We know it will be hard work -- there can be no denying that. But I think Obama has given us hope, a very specific kind of hope, a hope that WORKING TOGETHER (something we haven't done in a long time) we might be able to even things out, reduce the excesses and care for the needy, restore the values lost over the last 8 years of privilege and depradation.

Something's bubbling up here. And I think it's hope. But I'm not sure I'm gonna buy a new purse anytime soon.