Brain Food #510
Choosing hope over fear
Thoughts of the day
In a recent conversation I had with a friend, we discussed the difference between hope and optimism. Though they both look towards a positive outcome, optimism can choose to overlook the negative aspects of a situation. In that sense, hope paradoxically becomes more realistic: the belief for a positive outcome despite the negative.
In the 2008 Iowa Caucus, Barack Obama gave one of his many speeches for the books, declaring that “We choose hope over fear.” Today feels like the right time to share it.
“Hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.”
In Hope II, Gustav Klimt paints a pregnant woman in a moment of solemnity, a pose that suggests prayer, even mourning, as a skull is seen to come out of her stomach.
Why Hope, then? The world can be a terrible place, but, like a mother who would bring a child into it, despite knowing that the challenges it will face, hope prevails over fear.
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