Hope is, in simple terms, a hovering, oft-soaring element in our culture. It is also a part of received wisdom, not to speak of works of fiction — old and new. Yet, it is only in contemporary life that hope is disclosing its connotation in scientific studies.
Most adults plagued by long-lasting illnesses, who are hopeful, or positive, exhibit enhanced handling and coping skills, or healthy behaviours, to surmounting their anguish. Hope also offers a padding effect against depression and suicidal tendencies. For the young, hope is connected with well-being, also improved quality of life, self-assurance and tenacity. It is a vital factor for nurturing mellowness and flexibility too.
The best part is — hope prevails in the core of life’s impediments, viz., job loss, relationships, or family issues. If our early trials are so often associated to growing and emerging into healthy adults, our later life can be thought of as a time for consolidation and recognition of one’s self, even as the corporeal body declines and situations shift for and towards health issues.
Hope can be, for the most part, a powerful guardian against the trepidation of a protracted, or life-threatening illness. It needn’t centre on a search for a fail-safe ‘cure’ to work, though such an objective is alluring. Rather, a person’s hope — even when facing an illness that will likely end their life — can be directed at finding joy, or comfort. It can be refined and focused on realising life’s signposts, such as playing with grandchildren, or attending their wedding. It can be found in moments of tranquillity — remember, what is referred to as being contented would be often useful in our lives, notwithstanding perplexing circumstances.
Hope is that innate feature of one’s personality — it carries us through the worst moments of a crisis. It revs up, as though from some profound depth, especially when a cruel and unbearable world seems to have robbed us of every motivation to go on living a reasonably good life.
Hope also extends beyond merely dowsing distress; it is an active principle. It stands for belief. By offering us the dreams and visions that will guide us through the present, hope also gives us the power to project alternative realities. It permits us to insist that the world can be transformed; that it can be conceived differently. As Desmond Tutu articulated, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
Philosophy contends that hope is not just a simple emotion restricted to the individual self — it becomes expressive only when it articulates a long-term goal that incorporates everything good for all creatures. Hope illustrates the will to live, to love, and, most importantly, to thrive. It is, in short, the rejection to give up on the best in people, a rebuff, or disavow, the likelihood of one’s own negativity and that of the people one loves. Hope lets us to discover the connection between the intended and the probable; it allows us to project ourselves resourcefully in the world.
As a first step towards the constructive use of hope, it is essential for all of us to make our objectives a part of a larger and more inclusive project. Because, if we curb, or limit, ourselves to our own narrow goals, we may haphazardly restrict our growth. A long-term goal always makes for a ‘win-win’ situation — it is one that has something encouraging to offer everybody, without the ‘self’ gaining at the expense of others.
All possible goals are, more or less, attainable, when stirred by the love for the phenomenon called life. This epitome of hope is treasured in such traditional epics as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, The Iliad and The Odyssey. They are celebrations of strength and hope that embrace the world with its beauty and its terror. Also, notwithstanding the misfortunes that the central characters of the epics undergo — be it Sita, Rama, the Pandavas, or Odysseus — they all strive to uphold their uprightness and goodness, or a sense of purpose, or dignified resolve to confronting experience and surmounting the hurdles placed in their path.
Such profound characters affirm the values of hope; of standing up to what people call reality. In its simplest form, hope is nothing short of a path to and for the realisation of our profoundest, intensely imaginative aspirations and also deep, empathetic dreams. It is, put simply, the reaffirmation of our faith in the ability to live in harmony with ourselves, with one another, and with the universe.
— First published in India First
