Definitions of hope
7 12 2006“Hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency.”
Nikko, one of my favourite bloggers, quoted this on her blog Subverting Overconsumption.
The quote is from a Lip Magazine interview with Derrick Jensen, the author, environmentalist and campaigner against industrial civilisation.
I’m not surprised Jensen gives hope such as despairing definition, given his views and writing, but while I share many of his views on the state of the modern world, I have a rather different definition of hope.
I commented on my definition of hope on Subverting Consumption, but I’d like to repeat it here while seeking other definitions of hope, whether positive, negative or somewhere in the middle.
I wrote:
I’d define hope as a combination of resilience, faith and a sense of influence or control.
I’d like something to happen so I know from experience that I have the resilience to overcome or bypass obstacles between myself and that goal.
I have a strong sense of faith in my own abilities, mental, physical and spiritual, to cope with those obstacles, and I also have a strong sense of faith in those people that I can call on for support and assistance.
I feel that I can influence or control most or all of the decisions that must be made between the here and now, and my objective.
When I put all of those together, then I have hope.
I have to be wary of false hope and unrealistic hope but there are pitfalls on every path. For me, the occasional stumble is a reminder to tread carefully but never an excuse to give up.
Of course, I do have an advantage in that for me the journey is the destination so my hopes are never dashed when I reach a goal only to find it is not what I imagined. Instead, I delight in the differences between imagination and reality, as this gives me hope for what I might come across next.
This is probably a bit profound for early morning, but that’s what happens when you get up early to feed the animals before watching the sun come up with the sheep.
A few thoughts occurred to me after posting this.
By faith, I did not mean religious faith although this can be part of the equation. Nor did I mean blind faith as, for me, you have to have your eyes open to have real hope.
When I wrote about influencing or controlling decisions, I meant going further than the obvious choices that are put before us by ourselves, our circumstances, our culture, our religion (or lack thereof) and our society.
You have to open your senses and your mind to all the possible choices and then actively choose to take a particular course of action. Simply taking the least bad choice is not an active decision over which you have real influence or control - even if it is easy.
That’s where I stand, so where do other people stand on hope? What other definitions are there?
Simply put, hope is looking ahead for a result, an answer, to whatever you are endeavouring to achieve in life; or hope may be in reaching out for others to achieve their goals.
Hope can be like “if”. a small word with enormous meaning. You can hang on to your hopes in your pursuit of your future plans. I find this has given me many a boost throughout life.
Hope is about imagining the future, and imagining that it will be better than the present. It may or may not be followed by action intended to bring about the future you hope for. But even if not, it is an act of creation, and I agree with your use of the word faith, it is an act of faith that there will be a future.