Hope
Once we overcome the turbulent times, we discover a better version of ourselves.
In the middle of forest, a battle was going on between two armies. One army was outnumbered in terms of soldiers by the other army. The General of small army decided to launch attack on the other army since he was confident to win. However, his lieutenant and soldiers appeared doubtful on the day of battle. He stopped them and decided to toss a coin, if it’s heads they’ll win and if it’s tails they’ll lose, he told his army. It was heads on toss and his soldiers headed to battle field confidently.
The small army fought fearsome and they oust the bigger army. After the win, the lieutenant approached the General of the small army and said, “we were destined to win as destiny showed us through the toss of the coin.” The General smiled and showed lieutenant the coin, which had heads on both sides.
Thus, hope is like a light at the end of dark tunnel. If we believe in ourselves and light at the end, we will travel the dark tunnel with confident.
In the face of hardship hope is a thread to hook on to. It is the first and foremost step in the journey of “never giving up”. Living in hope is linked with basic trust in life that motivates flow, change, evolution and next step over stagnation and stationary. Thus it infuses in us a belief-
Our present situation, no matter how bleak, gloomy can always be changed.
HOPE: An Island to hold onto
On the face of adversity, failure and rejection hope gives us strength and courage to restart, boosts our exhausted selves to give a tougher fight and break- through all adversities, failure and downfalls.
It’s an island to hold on to in the middle of dark ocean.
Thus, giving us optimism in pessimistic environment. It’s tempting to fixate on collapse rather than focus on repair. Hope can be a powerful tool to get started with that repair over despair.
HOPE: Not an Illusion
Hope accepts the reality of grief, loss and uncertainty. However, no matter how far away, but it always sees the light of hope which can be navigated to.
It is no wonder why UAE’s first Mars probe was named “HOPE”. It was their vision not mere illusion that made them the first country from Central Asia to do so.
Thus, hope shapes our thoughts and our course to achieve what seemed an illusion.
HOPE: In the World of Turmoil
The world that we live in today, surrounded by crippling democracies, inequality, uncertainty caused by pandemic, environmental disasters and rising intolerance, hope is one and only way to reckon on a better and brighter world society that we can build.
The protests happening around the world for varied reasons ranging from Black Lives Matter to farmers protest, from Hong Kong youth protest to Friday for future protest, all have same genesis, a similar vision-
a possibility to change current situation of oppression, discrimination and injustice with their sustained action.
In the heart of every protester lies hope.
When at the beginning of 2020 we were introduced to new vocab in our everyday lexicon- “corona virus”, “pandemic”, “lockdown”, “travel ban”, “social distancing”, none of us imagined what lied ahead.
With no vaccines available, mass deaths happening, loss of livelihood and isolation, what kept the seven billion people going was the spark of hope of better and normal days that will soon come.
So is true in our persistence towards climate change and natural disaster issues. It is no wonder that we already have surpassed our emission limits and resource utilization, however, it’s a hope that consistent effort by everybody around the world will help in toppling the current worsening situation.
HOPE versus Action
For Hannah Arendt, hope is a dangerous barrier to courageous action. However, every courageous action begins with the believe of hope, that there is always a way out.
There is no denying, delusional hope leads a person to nowhere rather constraints his action. As the story of two brothers with a bowl of raw grams each has taught us. The delusional hope of one brother that merely keeping the bowl infront of God and hoping it to grow and multiple is impediment to action and reap no results. But, the other brother, hoping to grow and multiple grams by sowing them, looking after the sapling and waiting for harvest to reap result, is what action based on hope is.
When a sports team hopes to win the tournament, it’s hope guides it’s action of sustained practice and strategy to win.
When an incurable cancer patient cures his sickness that seemed impossible, it is the hope of that patient that he can live long like everybody else with little more care and optimism. Thus, his hope guides his everyday routine and diet schedule.
When our freedom fighters envisaged independent India, it was their hope to free India from the claws of 200 old colonization and hoist our tri-colour in independent air of our country one day.
HOPE: Shapes us
One of the latent functions of hope can be inferred from above examples, common to all is-
development of personality.
A personality marked with positive aura, willingness to fight their despair, with the hope of overcoming their hardship with their fighting spirit, which truly is a trademark of successful people.
Hope is not merely a sweet-pill in a mouthful of bitter reality bite but it’s an effective medicine that helps in grooming our mindsets, our vision of seeing ourselves beyond the immediate reality and shaping our personality overall. The medicine that every successful, abled person- whether an entrepreneur, politician, author, farmer, soldier, doctor, teacher, actor or athlete took at some point in their life.
According to Rabindranath Tagore, all the sufferings and uncertainties we are encompassed with are the test, the tests God put us through to check our perseverance, grit and equanimity.
Once we overcome the turbulent times, we would discover a better version of ourselves. Then all woes and fears would simply be bygone.
This battle could be wrapped up only by placing our audacious thoughts and optimism on the front line.
Hope is within each one of us, we just have to hold on to it.
And as Tagore said,
“And the dawn stepped in darkness, lacking all direction”,
there is no set direction or steps one can follow to walk into dawn passing the dark, it can happen from any direction, it can happen at any time. This belief of ours is the hope, the hope to nurture in us as long as we live, as long as we breathe.
