by Charles "Tom" Brown
Despite the chaos and the impermanence of life, we can choose to make the best of each day and to look for the sunshine...even on cloudy days. We can choose to be an eternal hoper.
The case for hope has never rested on provable facts or rational assessment. Hope by its very nature is independent of logic. It provides us with a sense of destination and the energy to get started. It gives value to feelings as well as to facts.
Hopers stay on the path, resisting those who would derail our quest. We keep traveling even when the specifics of the destination are confusing or changed midstream. Hope sustains our vision without dwelling on detailed results.
The obstructionists we hopers met on our sacred journey are numerous. Here are a few:
- Pessimists try to demoralize us by saying that life is hopelessly awful, oppressive, doomed: we receive the news, take it in stride, keep walking.
- Optimists race by, trying to disrupt our deliberate pace: we wave to these well-intentioned speed merchants, yet remain on track, guided by stars beyond and light within.
- Sentimentalists wish to lure us into retiring to a gorgeous, romantic village of the beaten path; we tender a friendly glance and saunter on.
- Opportunists set up shop to peddle magic trinkets and relics for our trip; choosing to travel simply, we decline additional tokens and push forward.
Faithful to the past, loving in the present, hopers forge tomorrows without number. For hopes do not die, and a hoping heart is of the stuff of eternity.
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