https://ugooblog..com/2020/04/to-hope-is-frightening-there-are-two.html?m=1


Below are two vignettes ( a vignette is a brief literary description of a subject matter) to drive home my point on how frightening hope can be after which the discourse begins. I will try to be as concise as I can be. Stay put!

1. ***It had been 5 years since Chloe lost her sight, the doctors had said there was absolutely nothing else to be done, they had been convincing. Chloe was barely 15 when the accident occurred, that she had just been really unfortunate was what virtually everybody had to say. Her parents had been rocks and she knew it, it was certainly not their fault that she and her squad members had journeyed all the way to find an excellent enough location for hiking that day but they had agreed to changing cities and family programs just to give her the feel of a fresh start; she loved her parents and seeing the efforts they were making to help her lead a normal life amidst their other baggage, she had braced up to the new life without her vision. Her vision was never coming back- now that was one enormously hard truth to accept, but Chloe had done it, taken it and swallowed it. It had happened after several long visits to the eye clinic, with several visual examinations and surgical trials, it had seemed the doctors could do nothing else, they had told her only God could help.

As time passed, she had come to be without expectations, for one she had threatened that she would opt out of the family prayer if the issue of her blindness was ever raised again at prayer. To her it had become comforting not to hope, not to expect anything, she was dwelling in the bitter satisfaction of knowing that the worst was over and she had found the ultimate contentment there.
“Your doctor called” her father had begun that morning at breakfast, there was a pause right after, during which she had heard him say something to someone else at the table in a muffled tone, she sensed the apprehension but she had remained quiet; “your folder was reopened for some reason I don’t know of” he said, “he had missed something with the last surgery you underwent…” “…there is a possibility you will see again Chloe" She had heard the excitement in his voice as he uttered the last words; she stayed face deadpan for about half a minute before asking to be taken to her room… Laying on the bed in her room she wept, she could not help the ire, she could not believe them; how they could take part in a connivance to rid her of her peace of mind baffled her. She had been at that place and they had been there with her, hopefully yearning for a miracle, hankering that she would see again, it had been a terrorizing experience. She was not going down that road again no matter what anyone had to say. To hope for her was really terrifying!

2. ***It was about 4:45pm, Idara had just dismissed a meeting with her co- workers at the office, and was now having a chit- chat with her assistant kiki when Nsikan walked it. Noticing that her friend had a morose expression on, Idara beckoned on her assistant to leave before going over to the already seated Nsikan. She held her friend in her bosom as she was expecting the bout of weeping that followed; Idara could only wonder if the pregnancy test that Nsikan had told her she would take that day, had come out negative again as she bade to comfort her friend.
When Nsikan could finally speak, Idara inquired to know what had happened. “Did it come out negative again?” she asked, the question seemed to have caused Nsikan to crack up further. “I’m so sorry babe, it’ll happen someday, I…….” “It came out positive” Nsikan interrupted amidst sobs. Idara was confused, but she went on to felicitate with her friend… “Oh! goodness! Congratulations darling, I am so….” She was cut short again “Four miscarriages, Idara, four times! I don’t know if I can bear to hope on this one, I am so scared…” That was a part of the story that Idara did not know of, she knew that Nsikan has been in need of a child but she had not been informed about the miscarriages, she understood now why her friend was broken by the news; having to hope that the pregnancy will be carried to term was something even she had now become frightened about.


Onto a more relatable scenario, it is easier for a number of us to sit at home and wait on death than hope that this pandemic will be brought to an end soon. This is understandable, peculiarly for those who stay in countries with a significant number of victims, many of who have to wake up each day to an exponentially increasing number of deaths. So then do we not hope? Is despair the better way? Should we wallow in the bitter satisfaction that the world is at her worst, that we are going to die anyway?

I am a believer in Jesus Christ and my religion is part of what makes me think the way I do, what I mean is that my religion is as essential as that I cannot dispose of it when I have to engage in rational thought processes. Now this has been made known to you because some of things I have to say are with reference to spiritual doctrines.

Moving on, so… what is hope all about? Hope is much more than a general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled or the presence of grounds for feeling optimistic or anticipative about the future. The catechism of the catholic church explains hope as one of the three theological virtues in Christian tradition; as an act of the will. Virtue however is a habitual perfection of will; which would imply that hope requires our will and that hope has to be a habitual action, habitual even when what we aspire for is beyond human reach or comprehension, to hope means that you don’t need grounds to feel optimistic about something; it means that tomorrow does not have to be promising for you to be expectant. Hope is what keeps a man from disheartenment and sustains him during the roughest of times, at those periods of abandonment and loneliness, probably when nothing else is possible, “and why?” we may be tempted to ask, Simply because, a man who hopes relies no longer on his own strength or the strength of any other man but on the gift of grace.

This applies to our current situation- the scenario I created about waking up to the increased mortality engendered by this pandemic. To hope here might be the harder option but hoping for the passing of this pandemic opens us to the possible action of feeling; feeling strongly about the friends we cannot meet up at this time, wishing them safety and triumph; feeling for those already infected with the virus, wishing them an absolute recovery; feeling for those loved ones already lost in the pandemic, wishing them a safer place; feeling for the expectant mothers somewhere hoping to bring forth life, wishing them a peaceful delivery; feeling for the toddlers who have very little knowledge of life; wishing they get to make the happiest memories; feeling for the children who desire more from life, wishing them the chance to finally take all they can from life; feeling for the health workers at the front line of the war against this pandemic, wishing that they be reunited with their loved ones. Hope helps you see beyond yourself, it helps you notice the needs and desires of others, it helps you notice your troubled or frightened friend or even family member and enables you offer good words to them; it helps you notice the poor or less privileged in your area, enables you offer support to them; it helps you notice the elderly man down the road, enables you to help them buy groceries. A man buoyed up with hope is kept from selfishness and led to the happiness that streams from charity

So back to the question of whether or not to hope. We certainly should. Hope is more gallant than despair will ever be. Choose courage. Choose hope.

Thank you!

https://ugooblog..com/2020/04/to-hope-is-frightening-there-are-two.html?m=1