subject: Where Has All The Hope Gone? [print this page] Where Has All The Hope Gone? Where Has All The Hope Gone?
Most people see hope in an unrealistic way I believe. I know as a younger man I certainly did. In fact, especially as a child I was deluded by hope. But as I grew into my twenties, I began to sense that while my life was a lot of fun, a quality of desperation was beginning to set in and work and life were becoming harder and less fulfilling.
But I had hope. Which is to say I thought myself bright, and as I was still young, I had plenty of time to figure out these problems and by the time I reached 40 I imagined I would be very happy.
But it didn't work out that way at all, no matter what I tried. In fact, my despair in life just kept growing and getting worse until I nearly had a nervous breakdown in my late 30's. It was a nightmare, and hope for me was shattered.
Things are much better now but I think I learned the hard way like most of do that hope does not mean that things just keep getting better and better until all your problems in life are solved and you find perfect happiness. I have heard of people claiming to have a great relief from life's problems and on the covers of their books they 'seem' to be perfectly happy, but I have never met anyone in my real world who didn't find this life to be pretty darn challenging and downright hard at times.
And that's where I think hope comes in. Because to me, life does not have to be free of problems. I don't love problems, but I have hope that I will be given the strength to meet the challenge of those problems. Joy at the peak of the mountaintop, looking down upon creation, only comes after steady climbing. That, I think, is hope.
