Modes of Hope

DEFINITION: Hope is the feeling you get when you have nothing else but are still optimistic. It is what keeps someone swimming when they are shipwrecked at sea. It is what keeps the miners alive after they have been caved in. It is what keeps the parents going through the motions after the child has been kidnapped. Hope is easy to live off of, but easy to lose. Hope has no place in the face of doom. It is boundless and easy to give. It does not exist when there are set boundaries. Hope only comes with the possibility of achievement or improvement, never with certain defeat. Hope cannot make change, but can give a person patience until change comes.

CLASSIFICATION: Hope carries images of natural disasters, of people sitting on their roofs with twelve feet of water below them, waiting for helicopters to bring relief. People think of hope and see children in Africa receiving life-saving vaccines from world organizations. People think of big kinds of hope, and how it can bring communities together. This exaggeration, while inspiring, overshadows the daily forms of hope that can bind just two people together. Two people hoping their loan will be accepted, two girls in Kindergarten hoping they can be each other’s friends, two teenagers on a first date hoping it will end with a goodnight kiss – all of these are daily forms of hope. Hope can span across a community or spark between just a few.

EXAMPLE: A friend of mine, one who never studies for tests, is always anxious to check her grades. To prepare, my friend has what she calls her “hope ritual”. She crosses her fingers and rocks back and forth, pleading with some distant deity. When the test is put face down in front of her, she bites her lip, mumbles a last “please, God, please,” and sits down to her banquet of consequences. I have another friend who simply hopes the assessment will be cancelled. This stubborn optimism never works out, but at least that friend has a healthy anxiety level.

COMPARISON/CONTRAST: People link hoping and wishing, because they are both focus on a better future. I hope it will be a nice day tomorrow so the picnic isn’t cancelled vs. I wish for a magical pony to ride to Rainbowland. There is not obvious line categorizing something into one or the other, but there is a difference in connotation. According to the dictionary, to hope means to look forwards with desire and reasonable confidence, but to wish means to want, desire, or long for. A hope is deeper, and closer. A wish can be made on a whim. Wishing for world peace will get you nowhere, but hoping for it implies there is a chance.

NARRATION: When I was in first grade, my mother developed cancer. Her hair fell out and she stayed in bed all day. I could not understand why people would bring flowers to the house, or tell us they were praying, because those things would not make her better. Someone – I can’t remember who – explained to me that people’s efforts were to create an environment of hope. To me, hope existed in the lilies on the kitchen table, and the casserole in the oven. When I would fold my fingers into a prayer at night, the smell of flowers and home-cooked food would permeate my house and fill it with “hope”.

PROCESS ANALYSIS Hope works like this: A person feels some degree of despair, whether it is mental depression or lack of a pet fish, and focuses some portion of their energy towards dreaming of it. There has to be some chance of that hope being fulfilled…or else it is futile, useless, hopeless. Let me take you through an example. But it won’t work unless you print these instructions and read them chronologically, one at a time. Stop reading and print. Ready?

1) It’s November, so it must be pretty cold outside. Take your shoes off, then go outside.

2) Walk around barefoot in a circle. Don’t talk to anybody.

3) Keep walking for another twenty minutes.

4) You’re cold now, aren’t you? Now, you feel it. You hope the doors haven’t locked you outside.

DESCRIPTION: There is a grey sky and a rattling wind. Two children huddle around a telephone pole, posting signs. “Dog: lost. Brown fur. Loved very much.”

A lady burdened by shopping bags stops to pause at the poster. “You know, I’ve seen that dog around,” she says, shifting her weight. “He’ll come home by dinner.” The children, their eyes glossy and wondrous, help to carry her groceries home. Their feet tap the pavement lightly. The sun peeks through the heavy clouds. Just as the children reach their own doorstep, they hear a happy bark coming from behind them.

ARGUMENT/PERSUASION: It is easy to throw in the towel and sit firmly where you are. It is easy to give up. It is easy to close your eyes, stuff your fingers in your ears, and pretend because you're sure nothing will improve. But I give this advice: don't lose hope. A little bit of optimism and positive attitude can do wonders, or at least pass the time until life turns around. Don't give up hope because you might have nothing left. You never know what is waiting to surprise you around the corner. The sun has to come up sometime. Don't let the world win, don't let it beat you down. Stand up, take a step forward, and keep moving. Annie can tell you the sun will come out tomorrow. Pocahontas can describe what's just around the river bend. It doesn't matter. Just don't let the world beat you down.

DIVISON OF ANALYSIS: If a scientist picked hope apart, tore at its sinews, and put each layer under a microscope, he would find this. Hope is predominantly made of despair from the past, and confidence in the future. The amounts of each define the strength of the hope. It needs an ounce of emotion, and a sprinkle of sincerity. Spirit gives it life, gives it a third dimension. Optimism is what allows hope to fill a room because optimism has a certain echoing quality that lets it reverberate among a crowd, like a chorus in a cathedral. Hope combines these elements into a gaseous mixture that can occasionally be transferred into a solid, (this money will save our home,) or a liquid (the medicine can make him better).

CAUSE AND EFFECT: Hope is a transition period. It is a middle station, a pit stop from point A: departure to point B: destination. Hope results when the conditions are less than ideal, and when there is a possibility of something better. There has to be some sort of unhappiness or room for improvement. The degree of despair determines the degree of hope.

Hope can cause unity when people share their despairs. It can bring happiness as people focus on the future, not on the past. It can cause optimism and peace of mind. Hope does not always bring the carrier to the destination, but it certainly makes the train ride smoother.