Hope

“Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning out over the bad. It's simply a choice to take action.”
Anna Lappe, O Magazine, June 2003


In these troubled times, it is inevitable that some of us will turn to hope. That is what may keep our spirits up long enough to take the right actions to steer the course. Hope is often referred to as a four-letter word, implying something vulgar and untrustworthy. In the realm of investment, this is probably true, as making financial decisions based on hope could be disastrous. These decisions must be based on accurate evaluation of risk and reward, on facts and figures rather than opinions and desires. A banker may transact based on hope - the hope that the debtor might be able to pay eventually even though all the credit history suggests otherwise, the hope that the market might surge to offset the risks, hope that the transaction will make a massive profit... The danger of hope is that it clouds judgement by letting desire and expectation gatecrash the party of analysis and evaluation.

So is it fair to say that hope is what got us into this financial mess in the first place? Perhaps (some might be more specific and call it greed). But might it be, as preposterous as it sounds, that it is hope that may get us out of this mess too? The proliferation of government rescue packages offer hope even though the stark reality is that a global recession looms. What could mitigate, if not avoid, a major economic slump? The word "confidence" is used a lot in news bulletins that discuss the credit crunch. The lack of confidence is what leads investors to sell off their shares, banks to avoid lending money to each other and to customers, and businesses shrinking their operations. Is this not hope (or the lack of it) in disguise?

Is there now a place of hope, in the absence of concrete facts and certainty about the future, to trigger a self-fulfilling prophecy? Can hope not drive confidence and then the actions that might begin to create the concrete facts and certainty about the future? That may be the key. And hope always starts with hope for ourselves. That we can be better, that we can weather whatever storm befalls us, that ultimately, we have within us the seed of greatness that we need to discover and bring powerfully into the world. Sometimes a crisis is a catalyst for the existential chemical reaction that can transform our lives. And hope is what keeps us in the laboratory to see the process through...


“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up. “
Anne Lamott

“He that lives upon hope will die fasting. “
Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,and never stops at all. “
Emily Dickinson, US poet (1830 - 1886)

“Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,Adorns and cheers our way; And still, as darker grows the night,Emits a brighter ray. “
Oliver Goldsmith, British-Irish author (1730 - 1774)

“The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. “
Stephen Ambrose, in Fast CompanyAmerican historian and author (1936 - 2002)

“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. “
William Shakespeare, "King Richard III", Act 5 scene 2Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)