Hope: For the Best

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never Is, but always To be blest:

The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”

~Alexander Pope, from An Essay on Man (Epistle 1) 1733

I have always wondered what the expression “hope springs eternal” means.  Pope, in his thick 18^th Century English prose, tries to explain how the world is ordered by the providence of God.  He talks about how man cannot see the plans of God because of the limits of our vision, but he believes God is in control even when the world around us feels out of control. 

Finding this section of the poem got me thinking about this strange phenomenon of hope.  It is powerful yet elusive. I have had hope at many times in my life, but at times it has been shattered.  Lately, I have been very hopeful about the future, but always wondering about the specific details and my part in it. I want to believe it will always get better, but the fatalist inside me says “maybe it won’t”. The truth is sobering:  we don’t know if it will get better.  My out of control finances may fall deeper down the slippery slope of indebtedness.  My health, which is quite good at the moment, could change at the drop of a hat.  So telling people “It will get better” is just short of a lie, but what are the alternatives?

There is always “Life sucks and then you die.” That will really cheer them up.  How about “Keep your chin up!” Again, not exactly reassuring.  Plus, you are likely to run into something while looking at the sky. Finally, you could throw out this one “Life is short. We are not promised tomorrow.” Again, not particularly effective at generating a sense of hope. The truth is pretty plain:  It will get better or it will not get better. So before you get totally depressed, let’s change gears and look at it from a different perspective.

Hope is something that you cling to like a life raft when you are swimming in the ocean and the sharks are circling. Hope is what makes you roll out of bed in the morning when your feet hurt and the birds are singing outside, but you don’t particularly feel like singing.  Hope is what makes you get dressed for that job that you hate because you know someday you will be going back to school to pursue your dream.  Hope is fed by the warmth of loved ones and the warmth of sunshine on your face as you walk through the woods.  Hope doesn’t promise tomorrow but it makes today worth living.

I know the Bible says “Now abide these three: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” I believe that, but I also believe that love is the glue that holds our hope together. We can have hope without love, but when love is present, it binds hope together into an unbreakable bond; for those who are loved have the confidence that love is eternal, and we know that to be true (especially for a Romantic such as myself).

Hope breeds optimism.  Hope looks forward and keeps our feet moving in the positive direction. Without hope, man would be a pitiful creature indeed.

Never lose hope, for the future, whether it is bright or not, is just around the corner and we must face it with all confidence if we are to finish victorious and without regret in this maze we call life.