Today's Essay: A Perspective on Hope
On What Hope Means, and What It Gives Back
I often think about hope, and it can be said that hope works, or is useful, as a kind of self-defense mechanism the mind uses. One of the main tasks of this mechanism is to protect the mind itself, and the body as well.
The good thing hope does in such situations is that it helps you cheat reality for a while, or at least for a moment. This is useful when you are confronted with something that has the potential to shock you, or when you are about to be overwhelmed.
It could also be that hope has a strong and close bond with imagination, because somehow they do a similar thing. Hope makes you believe in a possibility when there is only a small probability, and imagination turns that small probability into a genuine possibility. After all, everything happens in your mind, and there, there are no borders to be held or seen.
What does hope mean, and what does it give you in return?
Hope can protect, deceive, and sustain. It bends reality just enough for us to survive it, to keep moving until we are ready to face what is.
I don’t know about your case, but in most cases, the answer is either hope or vice, or maybe both.
In my case, it was hope. It helped me deal with something I thought I couldn’t survive, it quite literally saved my life.
Let’s not forget the old truth:
“Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.”
(You should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.)
— Juvenal, Satires, Book X, line 356
A.O. Homorodean
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