"Hope is never false." ~ Sandhya Menon (From Twinkle with Love)
For a long time I have struggled with hope. Not the concept itself or what it means, but whether I should have it or not. I know that may sound strange since hope is not something that one should have trouble with. After all, it is not a person, place or thing.
For me, hope is synonymous with expectation. You hope to pass an exam or to get that job you've been yearning for, even though you know you did abysmally in the exam or interview. Hope sprouts in the heart as just one small plant, but blooms into a tree of expectation as you water it each day. By the time the result comes and
confirms the doubts expressed by that little voice in your head, you feel disappointed. Some may say that feeling disappointed is normal and maybe that's true, but hope is what gave rise to that. If you did not hope and did not expect anything then not getting something would have hurt less. Perhaps that is a cynical view and a product of the disappointments I have had to face in my life, nonetheless, it has led me to put hope in the darkest prison of my mind, lest it fester.
Despite my inherently difficult relationship with hope, I do know that hope can be good. It can be a beacon of light on the seas of eternal darkness. Why not hope right? If the result is going to be bad, you might as well revel in the joy that hope brings in the days leading up to the so-called "judgment day". There are countless stories of how hope cured cancer or how hope brought people closer together. While these stories are great to hear, I don't think hope is to thank for them. I think it was a mixture of luck and timing. Someone once said that "until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter". Similarly, we hear stories of hope being a driver in miraculous events, but we do not hear the places where the light of hope failed.
This leads to me to the question I posed in the title of this article - is hope a friend or a foe? My answer: neither. I don't think hope is a friend nor a foe, I think it's irrelevant. After all, hope could be good one day and bad the next. It is unreliable. But if one puts in the effort and has a little bit of luck, then hope is irrelevant, because you shouldn't have to hope - you should know.
Love,
