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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Hope Revisited

When I was a child, I thought I could be anything I wanted. Anything at all.

It's what we're taught in school, right? It's what many parents tell their children. It's what I find myself repeating to my kids sometimes when we sit down and talk about their future. I want them to know that with hard work and determination, yes, it's true... they can become anything they want.

Right???

Now we can discuss the merits of whether that kind of mentality is truly accurate or whether it's just a facade. And we can dip into political and social issues and go into what keeps certain bodies of the human race down while others rise so unseemly...we can name injustices as to why this happens. We could, reader.

But that's not really what this post is about.

You see, lately I've been feeling like something is lost. As we age, something gets destroyed, and the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that it is hope that's lost.

Now I've written about hope before, way back when I first started this blog a few years ago. And I'm revisiting it again, because out of all of the human emotions, I believe that hope is the most powerful and potentially the most life-changing... if we let it be.

When you have hope, it literally lights up your world. But when hope falters, there is nothing worse than the darkness that seeps in and settles.

Think back to your childhood. In the eyes of a child, all is possible; nothing is uncertain.

As we age, the possibilities chip away little by little; the uncertainty rises.

Now I like to think I'm a hard worker, a go-getter. If there's something I want, I go for it and I don't like excuses. I take my time in whatever I do; after all, I want to do it well, not just rush through for the sake of having done it.

But I'm not going to lie. There is always a little voice inside my head that questions my actions and the possibilities I'm reaching out for. Why are you doing this? It says. What makes you think you can accomplish that? Sometimes it simply says, you're tired. Just rest. Who cares.

And sometimes I listen to it. Sometimes I don't. Regardless, I've noticed that I've increasingly let go of hope and the possibilities of what I could do with my life.

This is not to say that I no longer have hope, but it's that childhood sense of hope that I miss. You know the one I'm talking about. The one in which a mere stick is transformed into a sword to slay monsters with and rid the world of evil. The one in which the future stands bold like an exclamation mark instead of the question mark that we too often see as adults.

Somewhere through the years of life, we've learned the word "can't" and we've internalized it so well that it's just a natural part of who we are.

Of course I'm not silly enough to believe that a mere stick can really solve the problems that exist, like it once did when I was a child. But perhaps it's time to pretend a little and just believe that all things are possible. Just have a little more hope. That is all.

For life seemed better then, when we were kids and when all things were possible. Didn't it?

Hmm, perhaps I'm just feeling a little gloomy today. Tomorrow when I wake up, maybe the world will be as promising as it ever was...


10 comments:

derp said...

enjoy, friend.

http://youtu.be/zXktZiWRpeE

Alex said...

Ah, yes - hope. I think I'm of the belief that hope is a necessary evil. Yeah, it's mostly positive and I do see the point of your article (and agree with it), but I also feel like there's another type of hope that actually does damage as well.

I mean... think about 'hoping against hope'. How many times are we faced with a situation with a 100% certain unfavorable outcome... and yet we still hope it won't be the case. Doesn't that just set us up for disappointment, in a way? (I'm talking here about things that you have no or little control over, btw).

Anyway, nice article. Elenowen (who's one of my favorite groups) has a brilliant song, We Were Better Off, which is kind of relevant here. Take a listen, if you feel like it. :)

How've you been? :)

MyBeautifulMalcontent said...

derp, it's been a long time since I've listened to Smashing Pumpkin.

Thank you for sending me (in your own way) a bit of happiness.. :)

MyBeautifulMalcontent said...

Alex,

Hi there! I'm doing alright over here in my part of the world. It's been a long and brutal winter though and I am tired of it. How is everything with you?

You make some good points about hope. Yes, it can be a dangerous and foolish thing too, especially when we're blind to the unrealistic aspects of it. Thanks for the reminder about needing to balance what is realistic and what is not.

Elenowen... I'll have to look up that song. Thanks. :)

Alex said...

I'm relatively okay. I've not had the best month or so, but hopefully (ha!), the end of it is within reach. :P

But yeah, the cold. It actually snowed here yesterday and it was freezing - so weird...

Yeah, they're definitely worth checking out!

MyBeautifulMalcontent said...

Alex, sorry to hear about your month not going so well. You'll get pass it--just hang in there.

Do you usually get snow over there? I'm anxiously awaiting warm weather but it doesn't look like we'll get it anytime soon. Darnit.

So I checked out the song you suggested.. and it describes exactly my mood in this blog article! I'm going to have to look up more of their songs.

Alex said...

Hi! Yeah, we usually get snow and I love it. Not in March, though. Three days ago I had to wear my winter coat outside and i was still cold; yesterday I only had a hoodie and I was hot. Weird.

Yay, I'm glad you liked the song! ^_^ Elenowen is one of my favorite artists ever. I'm sure you'll love their other songs as well! :D

A Red Pickle said...

Hope is a powerful human emotion and can boost us to do thing we would of otherwise given up on. It provides us the 'will' where there is none. Like 'Love', we often misuse hope and that creates a disconnect from the human emotion. E.g I hope my car start in this cold; I hope Justin Bieber comes to my town, I hope for world peace.

Hope gives us the 'Will' but it doesn't provide us the path to get there. We must find our own path. There will be many times we may not reach our destination but we shouldn't feel discouraged. Even a perfectionist knows that perfect isn't achievable, but 'perfect enough' or 'good enough' can make us happy.

Maybe with hope we can find a mid point that will allow us to be happy. By just changing what we hope for may get us to that happy state. Instead of hoping for world peace, we hope the world may never give up on world peace, or that our children never gives up on their dreams, or that we ourselves never give up on our dreams.

MyBeautifulMalcontent said...

Alex, you've got strange weather there too, huh? It must be a worldwide thing then.

I'm liking what I hear so far of Elenowen. :) Btw, I tried to log into Scrib the other day. It's been so long that I've forgotten my password and even which email I used for it. lol I'm still going to try again later.

MyBeautifulMalcontent said...

Red Pickle, I like what you said about hope providing a will but not a path. So true. We have to find our own paths and sometimes we take the wrong ones, but if there's hope and the will to do it, then I believe that eventually we'll get to where we want to be. Thank you. :)