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Who hasn’t hoped from time to time? Who
hasn’t wished for or wanted something or someone to the point of impending
disaster if it or they did not happen? We all have and many times we have
seen those hopes die on the vine. So what keeps us hoping? What keeps us
going back to the wishing well time after time? Because we still hope for
things. We still wish for fulfillment. It is what keeps us from going
bonkers at times, keeps us from giving up, keeps us from doing crazy things.
Even at the lowest ebb of our lives, there is always hope.
When I was young I hoped one day to be someone famous. I hoped to be someone
who would be looked up to and praised for some great feat such as climbing
Mt. Everest or being an air ace. Then I hoped that I would be that ideal
husband and father like those guys on the family shows of television. I kept
hoping and life kept happening and getting in the way of all my hopes.
I see the direction the country is going with its crazy economics and
politics and I say to myself, "I wish I was up there in Washington or on
Wall Street. Boy would I give them an ear full." I would change the course
the country seems to be going and turn it around to get it back to be the
way it used to be. I hope someone will take up that mantle and carry it
through to the end. I hope that people will come back to their senses and
start acting more like citizens and less like pillagers. I hope that world
peace is not just a hope but reality. I hope that poverty is wiped from the
earth and that all men would respect the rights and dignity of all others.
So I kept asking myself, "does this happen to everybody, or is it just me?"
I see all the movies and news stories about all these guys that are having
these great careers and life experiences and here I am, still hoping. Its
like being dubbed Bob Hope’s brother No Hope. Even after you get to the
point where life has passed you by and you are getting ready to put your
feet up and retire it seems like you still have those long past hopes and
dreams that come up and you say to yourself, "did I miss it all? Did none of
my hopes come true?"
Then it would seem from somewhere out of the blue it hits you. Maybe you
didn’t climb the tallest mountain, but you scaled some pretty big hills.
Maybe you weren’t the flying ace who got your name plastered all over the
world, but you had some pretty big missions you took on and came out on the
other end. Maybe they weren’t big accomplishments as far as the world is
concerned, but you faced your challenges, you never gave up and you came out
a better man.
I don’t think it is too late to hope. I don’t think it is too late for
dreams to be fulfilled. Maybe its not too late for me to hope for some great
things before checking out of this life. Maybe even I shall see some of my
hopes and dreams fulfilled.
We all, from the greatest to the least have a right to hope. We all should
still keep those hopes and dreams alive, even if you have put your feet up
in retirement. We can all still hope to give our children and grandchildren
a better tomorrow than we have today. But, and that is a very large word
even if it does only have three letters, but only if we all decide that it
is time to go back to work on those hopes and dreams. Go back to work in
trying to accomplish one more great and noble deed before we give up all
hope.
Hope is what we can have when we have absolutely nothing else. Hope is what
we have when we refuse to give up. Hope is and will always be the glimmer of
light in the darkest hours of our lives. |
