We are all very near despair
The epigraph to Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities reads:
“We are all very near despair. The sheathing that floats us over its waves is compounded of hope, faith in the unexplainable worth and sure issue of effort, and the deep, sub-conscious content which comes from the exercise of our powers.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr
I’m struck by how the swing from despair to contentment in the quote mirrors the journey of her book’s title, from death to life.
The quote resonates so much with me because of this fragment: “the unexplainable worth and sure issue of effort”.
I have a real sense that we humans are made to be creative, to strive, to exert our effort. We aren’t made for drudgery, for rote work or degrading toil. Our effort sustains us in a world that constantly challenges and threatens us. It is how we care for each other.
This innate creativity can be twisted - into hustle culture, into propsperity gospels, into class warfare that convinces the poor that they must overwork themselves to enrich the owners. But I, for my part, still feel most content when I have done hard work for a good cause.
I made this quote the epigraph for my own website because I want it to be a statement of intent, a reflection of what I value and why I write.