Ah well......what can I say? I have my days.....since I threw myself such an epic bitch fest the other day.....I thought maybe I'd follow up with a little less doom and gloom eh?
I was talking with a very good friend of mine not long ago.....I mentioned to him that I was absolutely a die hard optimist, how else could I be here slugging away at this exam like I have after all the setbacks?....his response was, " Optimism is believing hope triumphs over experience".
While I'm certain that wasn't his own definition, it was new to me and I don't think I've heard anything truer is some time.....I thought maybe I'd devote a little space to hoping.....
- Hope is an emotional belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.
- Hope implies a certain amount of perseverance — ie. believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.
- Hopefulness is somewhat different than optimism, in that hope is an emotional state, where optimism is a conclusion reached through a deliberate thought pattern which leads to a positive attitude.
- But hope and optimism both can be based in unrealistic belief, or fantasy. -----Wikipedia
I'm a huge mythology fan....so I found this especially interesting....
- Hope was personified in Greek mythology as Elpis. When Pandora opened Pandora's Box, she let out all the evils except one: Hope. Apparently the Greeks considered Hope to be as dangerous as all the world's evils.
- But without hope to accompany all their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. It was a great relief when Pandora revisited her box and let out hope as well.
- It may be worthy to note that in the story, Hope is represented as weakly leaving the box but is in effect far more potent than any of the major evils.
Hope can be "passive in the sense of a wish or a prayer" - or "active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent, personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea. "
I know I can't hope myself a passing letter.....but I'm just as certain I'll never get that damn letter without hoping.......here's hoping we all have an active plan, with persistent personal action to acheive the goal..... We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope-----MLK, Jr. |
