Hope - 5/4/2011

I've always had a problem with the concept of hope.  It seemed like a lazy man's idea of amelioration;  inaction glorified at the expense of actual effort.  I hope one day I'll win the lottery, I hope I'll eventually go back to school.  I hope I'll find my place in this world, that my salvation will be guaranteed, and that my life will continue after death.  But all of this is indicative of fear.  Hope is not certainty, it is doubt made manifest....a declaration to the universe that the things you want most aren't actually happening and probably won't.  So in a way, hope isn't even true to it's own definition.  Hope is despair, acknowledged. 

One of my favorite videogame posters was for Lunar, Eternal Blue.  The tagline under the poster read simply, "In the darkest hour, hope springs eternal."  Then there's the quote from Shawshank Redemption, "Remember Red, hope is a good thing...maybe the best of things.  And no good thing ever dies."  And of course, the entirety of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, specifically the Two Towers, was based around the idea of hope....that when things look the darkest, and destruction is almost inevitable....."There is ~always~ hope."

Indeed, hope  has constantly revealed itself in teachings, writings, theologies, and philosophies since the dawn of thought.  So maybe there's something to the idea that I'm overlooking.  Some grain of truth that I have been blind to these many years. 

If hope is used as a replacement for action, to actually getting out there and changing your life...than of course it is counter-productive and should be avoided.  However, if hope is an underlying motivator....the energy that propels you to creation, than it should be wholly encouraged. And the way to perceive hope as a catalyst for change is to remember what hope really is.

Hope isn't wishing for things that aren't.  It is a realization that everything you dream of HAS HAPPENED.  It is yours.  You have everything.  The things you desire are a part of your being; you are absolutely inseparable from the things you want. At some point, you will remember the totality of who you are, and this all-encompassing memory will call these events and experiences to you. So hope isn't some cheap, meaningless platitude about wish-fulfilment, rather, it is an understanding that at some level, in some time or dimension that you're currently unaware of, your wishes have already been granted.