FIVE FEATHERED (HOPEFUL) WEBSITES
“Hope is the thing with feathers.”
Sometimes “kinder and cooler” isn’t enough. Sometimes, when your trusty Headline Blocker fails, you have to go straight for the real stuff — Hope. Luckily The Attic is far from the only site in the Webswamp dedicated to keeping hope alive. Here are fIve feathered Sites, i.e., sites where Hope is alive and well.
A Peace of My Mind — Since 2010, photographer John Noltner has been interviewing everyday Americans about what keeps them going. APOMM now has hundreds of Noltner’s stories and photos. “In a world that asks us to focus on the things that can separate us,” he says, “A Peace of My Mind invites us to explore the common humanity that connects us.” Pick a name and dive in.
2. Reasons to be Cheerful — David Byrne, famous for “Talking Heads” is worried about you. You just can’t cheer up. Since 2018 (a year after The Attic), Byrne and his RTBC staff have been gathering the most hopeful news and trends from around the planet. In separate categories — “We Are Not Divided,” “Art is Everywhere,” “Now Anything is Possible,” and others — Reasons to be Cheerful is just what the title says. Read more in The Attic’s feature on the site.
3. USA Today’s Humankind — Even journalism’s pros are starting to sense the drudge and despair their headlines are causing. Some are fighting back. USA Today’s Humankind section reports on the upbeat news that too many editors ignore. The Huffington Post has a similar section called Good News.
4. Yes! Magazine — Since 1996, Yes! has offered “solutions based journalism” — articles on solutions from environmentalism to social justice. Based in Seattle, Yes!, which comes out quarterly, has that can-do spirit of the West Coast.
5. Merlin — When you need a double dose of hope, why not go straight to the source — to the things with feathers themselves? Merlin is an amazing phone app from the famous Cornell bird lab, putting you in touch with your local birds. Simply open the app, tap LISTEN, and Merlin tells you who you’re hearing. Even if there’s a chorus, Merlin singles out each member by name. As Robert Frost wrote, “Never again would bird songs be the same.”
And if all else fails, there’s always this, every morning.
