HOPE - a chapter from my up coming book

Amy expressed an interest is seeing a post from the book I'm writing which is currently holding my attention and my labor. Its focus is on a silver bracelet which is comprised of seven oval links, each link bearing an inscription with a quality, one of which is HOPE. Each chapter is about the inscription on the link. So far I have written the introductory lead in, and chapters on Family, Hope, Truth, and I'm now tackling Joy. Yikes! Can anyone tell me what joy is? Or what truth is?

This is much more difficult that I thought it would be. The format is a piece of cake, but really being able to coherently write about Hope, or Truth, or Joy... well...... I've had to do some serious thinking on these, and I'm not 100% sure of the finished draft.

What I'm going to post is my rough draft on HOPE. I finished it a few days ago, and I'm letting it set and distill. I must put a little distance between us.

Maybe this is risky of me to put it out there for all the world to see, but my disclaimer is the rough draft status. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be so grateful to hear them.


HOPE
“What shall we do when hope is gone? …”
Joaquin Miller

Next to FAMILY on my silver bracelet, is HOPE. I would love to write something profound about HOPE, but I can’t imagine what I could say that hasn’t already been penned from those wiser and more eloquent than I. Emily Dickinson says that “HOPE is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul…” If our poet Emily is correct, then HOPE has wings and can give flight to falling dreams, as well as to lofty possibilities.

It feels to me that HOPE is one of the most important attributes of life that we can have, for what do we have if we have not HOPE? Where is the farmer without hope for his yield of crops, or the rancher for his herds, or the builder for his mighty skyscrapers and humble single dwellings? Without hope why go to school, learn a trade, or cook a meal?

Perhaps HOPE is a gift from that unseen gift giver; perhaps it’s a characteristic of soul; maybe it is a learned trait. HOPE seems to reach out and wrap her arms around other attributes such as courage, confidence, faith, achievement, and charity. She is the well from which springs all that is good in us and all that keeps us going; for “what shall we do when HOPE is gone?...”

When I first taught American Literature, I found myself inspired by the Puritans and the Pilgrims who forged a new life in a new world. They came for the freedom to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience, but upon landing they were faced with hardships they had never known. There were no Circle K’s or Motel 6’s. The land was hostile as were some of the native inhabitants.

They had a choice to make and they made it, that of holding the possibility of the dream without despairing at the reality. It was HOPE which brought them here. HOPE which forged through the wilderness, felled the trees, built the towns, planted the crops, and expanded the new world…

As a people they never abandoned HOPE, and many never realized the fruition of the dream, but perhaps they sensed that in their circumstances, very little that was worth doing could be achieved in their lifetime, so they held the dream for the future. They held the dream for us. The annals of history bear this out. Only a small part of that which is true or beautiful or good seems to make complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must have HOPE and hold the vision of the dream.

I have thought of our courageous forbearers many times, and I have adopted the motto in my mind to, “Hold the possibility of the dream without despairing at any present reality.” That hasn’t always been easy to accomplish, but without HOPE what would I do? What would any of us do?

I remember reading from William H. Danforth’s book; I DARE YOU, where he challenges the reader to develop the four square life which he labels the body, the brain, the heart, and the soul, and which represents our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual parts. None of these, I realize, can be developed without HOPE. Why would we even try? Why would we read a book, or paint a picture, write music, sing songs, write memoirs, poetry or books if we didn’t have HOPE? Why would we seek the medical professionals if we didn’t have HOPE for a healthy outcome?

It simply is the bedrock of who we are and what we can accomplish. HOPE is the symbol of the richer, fuller life. HOPE is the oxygen of being; so in Joaquin Miller’s poem, Columbus, when “the men grow mutinous”, and the “mad sea shows his teeth” and the “very winds forget their way,” and the frantic first mate asks, “Brave Admiral, say but one good word: What shall we do when hope is gone?” The words leaped like a leaping sword: “Sail on! Sail on! Sail on! And on!”

Columbus had hope of a new world, and he sailed on until he found it, as did many great explorers who were driven by that internal quality which cannot be denied. It’s a part of the divine order of every life to follow their life’s star, but it’s HOPE that starts and sparks the movement.

Friedrich Von Schiller lived in feudal Germany and never gave up HOPE for freedom; having all of his work characterized by the theme of freedom and idealism, he eventually inspired his countrymen to fight for liberty in the early l800’s. His classic poem, “Three Words of Strength,” call for engraving upon our souls the lessons of HOPE, Faith and Love, “Have hope! Though clouds environ round / And gladness hides her face in scorn, / Put thou the shadow from thy brow, / No night but hath its morn.”

The light will follow the dark and therein lives the spark of HOPE. It is born from the evidence of the turning of the earth…The light will follow the dark…”No night but hath its morn.” My blessed Grandmother always comforted me with, “The darkest hour is just before dawn,” and because she said it, I believed it, and then I came to know it.

Without HOPE the Wright brothers would never have tried to fly a plane; nor President Lincoln free the slaves; Benjamin Franklin wouldn’t have flown his kite into electrical history, nor would Alexander Graham Bell acted on his genius which gave us the telephone. HOPE gave us Einstein’s theory, and Henry Ford’s car. Hope gave us the Sistine Chapel at the brilliant hands of Michelangelo, and HOPE gave us the works of Shakespeare. It gave us professional ball games, human achievements and world records which are ever being broken on the wings of HOPE. Hope put man on the moon, and Mother Teresa in our hearts. HOPE gave us Disneyland and dreams and stars to wish upon.

So, what shall we do when HOPE is gone? Edmund Burke said, “Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.” The great men and women who fill our history books, our literature books, and our quote books seemed to understand this principle. When HOPE is hiding her face, and we feel frightened, lonely, forlorn and anxious, we would be well advised to do as all of those great people have done before us; keep moving in the direction of our dreams, and we’ll “… meet with success in uncommon hours,” promises Henry David Thoreau.

I want all of the beautiful women in my life, young and old, to embrace the role they have chosen for themselves, and let HOPE be their partner. I want each of them to remember that they are unique; that they are a single flame adding to the light in my life. I desire for them to “gain a world” of their choosing, just as Columbus “gained a world,” and I yearn for them to give the world their lessons, while they hearken to the great Columbic lesson of, sailing on…. “On! Sail on!”
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What I didn't tell you before hand is that this book is a tribute to all the women in my life.