Hope
After writing about the suffering I experienced from chicken pox, I reflected further and realised that my pain was really nothing compared to what many others have to endure for much longer periods. Like...
1) People with cancer, AIDS and other chronic illnesses who are battling within their bodies a real and intense physical agony, ten or perhaps hundreds of times worse than mine, and trying to overcome the psychological fear of dying anytime, losing everything precious to them...
2) People facing daily acts of violence, persecution and harassment due to systematic gender/ racial/ religious/ ethnic discrimination, or war/terrorism or even crime, who live in constant fear of what would come their way...
3) People whose children or loved ones are missing for days, followed by months and then years, waiting for the tiniest bit of news of their loved ones' whereabouts - or at least of their confirmed deaths - and even entertaining cruel prank calls or cheats trying to take advantage of their plight...
Perhaps the worse of the lot above are those without any Hope. For someone without Hope, being alive would be worse than being dead. In the anime, Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl), many who are living in a state of despair seek to be avenged from those wronged them, but they know they will eventually pay the price by also being sent to hell when they die eventually.
In the anime Snow Queen, the lead character Gerda discovered in her adventures that it was important to have Hope. She met a little girl suffering from a chronic illness, and wanted to help her get well. The girl's mother already lost hope after hearing the doctor say that the girl's days were numbered; of course, the girl didnt know that she was dying, as her mother had no heart to tell her the truth.
One day the girl told Gerda that she had planted some snow peas in a planter box and wanted to see them sprout in Spring. She said her mother told her that in Spring little shoots would emerge from the soil, and she loved to see snow peas grow and pop in Autumn as they ripen. Little did she know that the peas that she had planted were cooked, and her mother had lied to her to give her something to look forward to.
In order not to disappoint the little girl, Gerda searched high and low for live snow peas and planted them secretly in the same planter box. As the snow of Winter melted, little snow pea shoots sprouted from the planter box, and the little girl began to miraculously recover as well. Her mother who didnt know what Gerda did also thought it was a miracle and found new hope and strength to continue taking care of her daughter.
Indeed, Hope is very powerful. I personally believe it is a gift from God to help us overcome our problems in life. The saying goes, "All is lost without hope." Of course, hope can be abused as well. For instance, the chronic gambling addicts are deceived by a false sense of "hope" to continually lose their hard-earned money to the casinos. Members of doomsday cults and extremist-terrorist groups are misguided by twisted-minded leaders of a "hope" of a better tomorrow once their enemies are eradicated. A perhaps less negative example is the "miracles" that beauty products and exotic health supplements promise to give anyone who consume them, albeit at ridiculous prices. These examples exploit human weaknesses (greed/ vanity/ ignorance) and use false Hope as a disguise to lure the guileless.
I truly believe that genuine Hope can make our lives better. Without Hope, man could never have built airplanes or invented electricity. Many life-saving medicines and medical treatments would never be discovered. Without Hope, many people would have chosen to end their lives in desperation, pain and sorrow. If I can choose between Hope and the world's riches, I would choose Hope. With Hope, I know I can be happy, but I might not necessarily be happy if I owned all the wealth in the world.
1) People with cancer, AIDS and other chronic illnesses who are battling within their bodies a real and intense physical agony, ten or perhaps hundreds of times worse than mine, and trying to overcome the psychological fear of dying anytime, losing everything precious to them...
2) People facing daily acts of violence, persecution and harassment due to systematic gender/ racial/ religious/ ethnic discrimination, or war/terrorism or even crime, who live in constant fear of what would come their way...
3) People whose children or loved ones are missing for days, followed by months and then years, waiting for the tiniest bit of news of their loved ones' whereabouts - or at least of their confirmed deaths - and even entertaining cruel prank calls or cheats trying to take advantage of their plight...
Perhaps the worse of the lot above are those without any Hope. For someone without Hope, being alive would be worse than being dead. In the anime, Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl), many who are living in a state of despair seek to be avenged from those wronged them, but they know they will eventually pay the price by also being sent to hell when they die eventually.
In the anime Snow Queen, the lead character Gerda discovered in her adventures that it was important to have Hope. She met a little girl suffering from a chronic illness, and wanted to help her get well. The girl's mother already lost hope after hearing the doctor say that the girl's days were numbered; of course, the girl didnt know that she was dying, as her mother had no heart to tell her the truth.
One day the girl told Gerda that she had planted some snow peas in a planter box and wanted to see them sprout in Spring. She said her mother told her that in Spring little shoots would emerge from the soil, and she loved to see snow peas grow and pop in Autumn as they ripen. Little did she know that the peas that she had planted were cooked, and her mother had lied to her to give her something to look forward to.
In order not to disappoint the little girl, Gerda searched high and low for live snow peas and planted them secretly in the same planter box. As the snow of Winter melted, little snow pea shoots sprouted from the planter box, and the little girl began to miraculously recover as well. Her mother who didnt know what Gerda did also thought it was a miracle and found new hope and strength to continue taking care of her daughter.
Indeed, Hope is very powerful. I personally believe it is a gift from God to help us overcome our problems in life. The saying goes, "All is lost without hope." Of course, hope can be abused as well. For instance, the chronic gambling addicts are deceived by a false sense of "hope" to continually lose their hard-earned money to the casinos. Members of doomsday cults and extremist-terrorist groups are misguided by twisted-minded leaders of a "hope" of a better tomorrow once their enemies are eradicated. A perhaps less negative example is the "miracles" that beauty products and exotic health supplements promise to give anyone who consume them, albeit at ridiculous prices. These examples exploit human weaknesses (greed/ vanity/ ignorance) and use false Hope as a disguise to lure the guileless.
I truly believe that genuine Hope can make our lives better. Without Hope, man could never have built airplanes or invented electricity. Many life-saving medicines and medical treatments would never be discovered. Without Hope, many people would have chosen to end their lives in desperation, pain and sorrow. If I can choose between Hope and the world's riches, I would choose Hope. With Hope, I know I can be happy, but I might not necessarily be happy if I owned all the wealth in the world.
posted by sunshine wallflower at 1:41 PM
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