Yes, spring will come again

Here’s some good news, and it’s absolutely true. Even if Donald Trump has persuaded you that people who work in the mainstream media are enemies of the people, I promise that you can take this fact to the bank: Spring is coming.

The next vernal equinox is still five months away, and we have to get through a winter first— which, thankfully, the Farmers’ Almanac and the woolly bear caterpillars (both expert sources, believe me) suggest is going to be rather mild.

So as we note that covid-19 is surging, with eight million known cases in the United States, and as millions of Americans slip into poverty while Washington dithers on desperately needed aid, and as the prospect of presidentially provoked unrest or perhaps even violence looms over our political divide—even amid all that terrible news, there are glimmers of hope that we ought to embrace.

What we need is hope. Since hope generates lovely dopamine, hope is its own reward—helping to get us through dark days and helping build our perseverance for the long run of challenges ahead. And there are two specific reasons that I’m sensing hope in these difficult days.

For one, it is beginning to look like voters will unburden the nation of the turbulence and decline that has attended the Trump presidency. While electing a new president won’t quickly bridge the great divides in American life or restore our fractured relations around the world, it will enable us to begin the healing. There’s a lot of hope in that.

The second cause for hope is that there is an end in sight to the worst of covid-19, as vaccine development proceeds speedily. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the steady voice of science on matters of public health, is saying these days that he is “cautiously optimistic” that we could have 700 million doses of a safe vaccine to administer by the end of April.

Every independent poll is showing a strong margin of preference nationally, and a varying edge in all the swing states, for Joe Biden to be our next president. The promise of a turn away from an administration that shames us abroad and abandons its responsibilities at home can inject some hope into a dispirited nation.

In the long run, we can actually train ourselves to feel more hopeful. It can come from simply doing something worthwhile. Without understanding the science of the brain, industrialist Henry Ford noted, “There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.” A dopamine surge, remember, follows accomplishment.

So to get yourself through the dark days ahead, start by doing something you might be proud of now. Get some exercise. Volunteer for a political campaign. Send a note to an old friend. Plant some bulbs.

Spring is coming. Get ready to welcome it.