Start with A Brownie
A number of years ago, in a mental institution outside Boston, a young girl known as “Little Annie” was locked in the dungeon. The dungeon was the only place, said the doctors, for those who were hopelessly insane. In Little Annie’s case, they saw no hope for her, so she was consigned to a living death in that small cage which received little light and even less hope. About that time, an elderly nurse was nearing retirement. She felt there was hope for all of God’s children, so she started taking her lunch into the dungeon and eating outside Little Annie’s cage. She felt perhaps she should communicate some love and hope to the little girl.
In many ways, Little Annie was like an animal. On occasions, she would violently attack the person who came into her cage. At other times, she would completely ignore them. When the elderly nurse started visiting her, Little Annie gave no indication what she was even aware of her presence. One day, the elderly nurse brought some brownies to the dungeon and left them outside the cage. Little Annie gave no hint she knew they were there, but when the nurse returned the next day, the brownies were gone. From that time on, the nurse would bring brownies when she made her Thursday visit. Soon after, the doctors in the institution noticed a change was taking place. After a period of time, they decided to move Little Annie upstairs. Finally, the day came when the “hopeless case” was told she could return home. But Little Annie did not wish to leave. She chose to stay, to help others. She is was who cared for, taught, and nurtured Helen Keller, for Little Annie’s name was Anne Sullivan.
Planning the Next Wedding
A man in his middle years was on a Caribbean cruise. On the first day out, he noticed an attractive woman about his age who smiled at him in a friendly way as he passed her on the deck, which pleased him. That night he managed to get seated at the same table with her for dinner. As the conversation developed, he commented that he had seen her on the deck that day and he had appreciated her friendly smile. When she heard this, she smiled and commented, “Well, the reason I smiled was that when I saw you I was immediately struck by your strong resemblance to my third husband.”
At this he perked up his ears and said, “Oh, how many times have been married?”
She looked down at her plate, smiled demurely, and answered, “Twice.”
Hope and Despair
Hope is a projection of the imagination; so is despair. Despair all too readily embraces the ills it foresees; hope is an energy and arouses the mind to explore every possibility to combat them. In response to hope, the imagination is aroused to picture every possible issue, to try every door, to fit together even the most heterogeneous pieces in the puzzle. After the solution has been found, it is difficult to recall the steps taken—so many of them are just below the level of consciousness. –Thornton Wilder
The Cynical View
Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of life along an agreeable road. –La Rochefoucauld
Fear and Hope
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. –La Rochefoucauld
The Despair of the World’s Wisdom
I just finished a study of the Book of Revelation, ending on the high note of the triumph of the last two chapters. What a glorious denouement is painted for us in the Apocalypse! I was reminded of the opposite view of the eschaton in the well-known quote from Bertrand Russell in A Free Man’s Worship. His description of the bottom line is this: “All the labor of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system. The whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.”
Somehow, that doesn’t come across to me as a “firm foundation.”
So also this assessment by Will Durant, well-known historian: “Life has become, in that total perspective which is philosophy, a fitful pollution of human insects on the earth, a planetary eczema that may soon be cured; nothing is certain in it but defeat and death.”
Contrast these visions of the future with the sure word of Scripture as found in Matthew 28. Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”
In Flight
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure but from hope to hope. –Samuel Johnson
Coleridge on Hope
Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, and hope without an object cannot live. –Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Tomorrow’s Hope
Psychologist William Marston asked three thousand people, “What have you to live for?” He was shocked to discover that 94 percent were simply enduring the present while they waited for the future, waited for something to happen, waited for “next year,” waited for a “better time,” waited for “someone to die,” waited “for tomorrow,” unable to see that all anyone ever has is today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow exists only in hope.
Keep Your Hope Alive
The world is full of hopes and expectations that motivate men and women. Some of these hopes prove illusory and empty when time has passed. Some men put their hopes in fading realities. I am reminded of the dramatic speech of Douglas MacArthur when he addressed Congress after returning from Korea (at Harry Truman’s sudden behest). His memorable speech included these sad lines: “I am closing my fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished.”
Hope the Motivator
An examination was being held in little Emma’s class at school and the question was asked: “Upon what do hibernating animals subsist during the winter?” Emma thought for a few minutes and then wrote: “All winter long, hibernating animals subsist on the hope of a coming spring!”
Hope on the High Seas
You may remember the story of the long and rough Atlantic crossing where the seasick passenger was leaning over the rail of the ocean liner and had turned several shades of green. A steward came along and tried to cheer him up by saying, “Don’t be discouraged, sir! You know, no one’s ever died of seasickness yet!” The nauseous passenger looked up at the steward with baleful eyes and replied: “Oh, don’t say that! It’s only the hope of dying that’s kept me alive this long!”
A Boy’s Hope
Several years ago, a teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital received a routine call requesting that she visit a particular child. She took the boy’s name and room number and was told by the teacher on the other end of the phone, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework so he doesn’t fall behind the others.” It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got outside the boy’s room that she realized it was located in the hospital’s burn unit. No one had prepared her to find a young boy horribly burned and in great pain. She felt that she couldn’t just turn and walk out, so she awkwardly stammered, “I’m the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with nouns and adverbs.” The next morning, a nurse on the burn unit asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” Before she could finish a profusion of apologies, the nurse interrupted her: “You don’t understand. We’ve been very worried about him, but ever since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.” The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope until he saw the teacher. It all changed when he came to a simple realization. With joyful tears, he expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”
Keeping Hope Alive
At the university, there was a piano teacher that was simply and affectionately known as “Herman.” One night at a university concert, a distinguished piano player suddenly became ill while performing an extremely difficult piece. No sooner had the artist retired from the stage when Herman rose from his seat in the audience, walked onstage, sat down at the piano, and with great mastery completed the performance. Later that evening, at a party, one of the students asked Herman how he was able to perform such a demanding piece so beautifully without notice and with no rehearsal. He replied, “In 1939, when I was a budding young concert pianist, I was arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. Putting it mildly, the future looked bleak. But I knew that in order to keep the flicker of hope alive that I might someday play again, I needed to practice every day. I began fingering a piece from my repertoire on my bare board bed late one night. The next night I added a second piece and soon I was running through my entire repertoire. I did this every night for five years. It so happens that the piece I played tonight at the concert hall was part of that repertoire. That constant practice is what kept my hope alive. Everyday I renewed my hope that I would one day be able to play my music again on a real piano, and in freedom.