Hope Inquiry: Vital Moves From the Gut in the Middle Cut Together

Abstract

In this encounter, I move in the middle of things, more specifically of other texts not my own for I did not bring them into being or strung them in their word order as you do. They are borrowed and yet they get and feel me. I attend to the doings of hope and not so much its what-ness or aboutness. I propose a hope inquiry that begins in the middle. Its inquiry does not ask what it really means or a getting into the bottom of things. There is no bottom, just the middle bits. Its question is an invitation to ponder and fold into at least three dance moves: (a) to attend to the not-yet-ness of things, places and possibilities; (b) to rest in presence, fully stuck in the here and now; and (c) to find returns, detours, and dead-ends with deep intent. Hope is an inward movement—a reconnection to one’s gut—our body-middle.