Hope is one of the sacred cows in our society that is considered inherently a good thing. But since we are in the habit of slaughtering sacred cows, we will attempt to send it to the gallows.
Let’s use an analogy.
Assume that you have arrived in the world for the first time. Let’s say you arrive during the day and you bask in the glory of the light of day. But soon, the light starts to dim, and you find yourself engulfed in the darkness of the night. The night is scary and you get worried.
So, a motivational speaker comes and tells you “Don’t worry, be happy, just hope”.
Now, you shift your worry into hope, and you hope the whole night. And surely, at 3.00 am in the morning you see a glimmer of light. As it dawns, you get excited and by 7 a.m. you feel vindicated that the light has come.
So, you enjoy the light for the next 12 hours. Then at 6 p.m. it starts to get darker. You are gripped by fear and worry again. Then in the middle of the night, you remember that you hoped and light came.
So you start hoping again. You hope throughout the night until light comes in the morning.
Eventually you start believing that hope brings light. So, every day of your life, you go through the cycle of worry to hope, then back to worry.
In fact, you start employing hope as a strategy for all the things you don’t understand.
So why did you worry and hope every time night falls?
Because you did not understand how the solar system works.
If we understood how things work, we will spare ourselves the vicious cycle of worry and hope.
Life is life
Fabio