Knowing Hope

A reader writes:

I've been following this story since you began highlighting photos and stories from the campaign. These were enough to get me misty-eyed, and so the "result" of the election was devastating. I was inseparable from my computer over the weekend, and kept going back to the photo of men in green and black. The whole time I've been tempering the same hopes you've been careful to hedge, and yesterday's relative quietness made the voice of doubt ever more persistent.

Today, then, we saw what can happen despite the deaths, despite the threats of retribution, and despite the best efforts of the dying regime to somehow push back the tide with imprisonment and intimidation. Watching as I could from work, I kept finding myself in tears as each new image affirmed and emboldened my belief that yes, something really has happened in Iran. The usual words seem inadequate for what we're seeing here: beauty, inspiration, hope, awe, fraternity -- these are accurate, but even combined fall short of what I feel when I hear their voices, see their faces, and read their words.

I'm not a religious man, so I can only guess, but this moment seems to inspire the same indescribable faith and wonder. Yes, I do not know, but yes, I believe they will prevail.