Hope: Essential for the Human Spirit, But What Exactly Is It?
(Photo credit: Daniel Boros)
In Christy Brown’s My Left Foot, he shares traveling to Lourdes, France, in hopes of his cerebral palsy being cured. Nowadays, parents are making similar pilgrimages with their children afflicted with cerebral palsy to China for stem cell treatments. I admit I do not know enough about this latest treatment to know whether it is a bona fide treatment for cp or another empty promise, but I am certain about one thing: these parents are searching for hope. Just like the cancer patient who travels to a foreign land for an alternative treatment, the low income earner who buys into a money-making scheme, or the mourning father who lobbies for changes to the justice system so no more children are harmed needlessly. They are searching for hope.
I have often pondered: What exactly is hope? How do you truly define it? What are people actually searching for when frantically searching for hope? While watching the Hour of Power this morning, a thought struck: maybe HOPE is an anagram for something like:
- Help with their individual struggle.
- Optimism that there is something better out there, that something more exists.
- Possibilities for an improvement, a solution, a cure.
- Empathy from others, to feel others understand and that they aren’t alone in their struggle.
This may not be the complete answer to my question, but it is an answer that works for now, for today.
What do you think? How do you explain what hope is, other than essential?
If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.
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