Hope

Today I’m going to take a break from the troubles of today’s world and dwell on an important topic:  Hope

Of all of the higher thought processes we are endowed with, the idea of hope is unique, and perhaps is one of the most important concepts that cause humanity to stand separate from the rest of the known universe.

Hope is a highly evolved concept, because it is purely forward looking.  Before we can have a sense of hope, we need to imagine different futures, and make discernment over the best outcomes.  It is also my observation that when people make outward proclamations of hope, they tend to be heavily weighed toward what we would universally describe as good; a good in the moral sense that also seems to be uniting in raising humanity.

Hope and Peace are inseparable.  The state of our global community is not a state of Peace, though thankfully, most people in the world enjoy a modicum of peace in their personal lives.  When we look ahead to the lives of our children, we discuss their futures in terms of our hopes for them.  Invariably, people invoke peace as a hope for their children and grandchildren.  This is true in the relative safety of Massachusetts, where I live and write from, as it is in Gaza, Sudan, Syria or anyplace else where one would think that Hope would be hard to come by.

Hope makes us ambitious.  It is Hope that informs us that Peace is so much more than safety from violence, but a sense of security, fairness, access to basic needs and rights, and the desire to perpetuate that deeper understanding of Peace.

Hope grows.  It springs from a passing wish of how things could be, and germinates into a belief of how things should be.  Beyond that it becomes inspiration, where we make that transformation from how things should be to how things will be.  Several months ago, I stated that I believe humanity is on a long road toward true Peace.  Whether, as I believe, a divine guidance leads us there, or if you prefer, the natural ascendancy of mankind makes it inevitable, you can draw the same conclusion. 

Informed, perhaps, by my assertion of eventual peace, it is a wellspring for Hope, that we may see it begin during our lives.  If we are destined to wander in the desert of War for our lifetimes, perhaps we will be graced in our final days by a glimpse of that promise on the far side of the river, comforted that it is the inheritance of our children, who will pass over into a world of Peace.