This is a big word. But behind it - I want to know what it is that is driving us to possess ‘hope’. I started this blog post a few days ago, probably a week now. Within this week, I have already talked to a few people about “hope”. As exams are coming up, people’s health are at stake, I have come to question this supposedly huge metal capability of “hope”. What does it means to “hope”?
I am not trying to be philosophical or anything. Its just that lately hope and luck are words which seems a little meaningless to me. What does it mean when a person wishes you “good luck” for your exams? or what does it mean when someone hopes that another person gets better? Ultimately, we believe that there is a mysterious, supernatural force out there which puts together all the law of physics which in our mind we are able to bend. People pray for something they want. But how often do they get it? Are we being over-optimistic to believe that there would be some divine intervention which will help bend the future towards your desires?
Sure, optimism and hope comes together. We have to be optimistic so that psychologically if something bad happens, we are ultimately prepared to take that consequence. But what if its something beyond our comprehension?
Imagine a child in Darfur running away from militias everyday. In his mind, he hopes that tomorrow would be a better day, that it would be just like the days when he remember cooking in his minimal hut for his brothers and sisters who have AIDs. See, the big picture is that if one day the international community can finally pressure China to stop supporting Sudan and perhaps that kid would have a chance of his hope realising. But what is the sole agent that is trying to link his hope with China’s cease of support for Sudan? If action is the agent, there must still be a platform for such a hope to be realised.
We often want to believe that by our mind, we can change the reality. But more often than not, we are conditioning our minds to cope with the reality. I am still intrigued by this notion of “hope”. I hope that I will do well in my exams tomorrow - I can only do my part in revising for it, but that is how far hope can take me. Sometimes we just have to accept that things are not in our hands and there is nothing we can do - even hope.
Gosh…this is such an anti-religious post. Its just a thought exercise.