The fine line between hope & stupidity
This is not a typical motivational story! It’s about using your brain to differentiate hope from idiocy ;)
Hope. What is hope? When I ask this question you might say it is the idea or the thought that makes us believe that an event will give out an expected result. If you’re a student you hope for good grades, if you’re a farmer you hope for a good harvest, if you’re a writer you hope many people will read and love your stories. But a week ago I realized that there’s a whole new side of “hope”. A side which most people use for both good and bad.(Isn’t that the reality of almost everything? Doesn’t matter how pure/ effective something or some concept is, you can still use it for both good & bad.)
- The good side of hope is what makes us keep faith on the world and that is what drives us to do great things. Doesn’t matter how logical your argument is but we all must agree that hope is the solid basement which all religions have been built. It’s that much powerful. This reminds me of a fantastic speech by Admiral William H. McRaven which I watched few years back. There he said,
“If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person — Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala — one person can change the world by giving people hope.”
But, this article is not about that good side.
2. Sometimes don’t you feel like hope is something which was invented and introduced to miraculously put faith in humans to get them work to the last drop? Don’t you feel like you’re being manipulated by people who are giving you faith & hope to hold on to the things which actually damages you? Think about all the fancy stories and quotes that you’ve heard about hope and pursuing your dreams. What about them? Well those mostly come out of the mouths of the successful. But think about the ones which tried tried and tried falling for (the myth called) hope and had enough of it? What about the quotations of those who tried their entire life time and still failed? What about the ones who lost even what they had in the beginning just because they tried once more? I know when I put it like that it sounds depressing. But… the truth is people don’t talk about these much, and that’s mostly because of the fear of appearing lethargic to the public. Is that even a thing? Don’t get me wrong. This is me being really pessimistic.! Hoping that everything will turnout to be the way we want them to be is comforting and inspirational, I know. But? What if it doesn’t turn out to be exactly as we picture it? Think about the movie- The pursuit of Happiness for a moment. Well, we have seen a lot of movies of that nature in theaters. But why? Because he succeeded and got rich. What if it didn’t go like that?
What about all the poor souls who fall for that blindly and go after there goals without proper plan, knowledge, intelligence. What happens when someone keep trying and trying and spend every penny they have to try once more and still lose? They might eventually die alone and sad. Who’s going to make a movie about them?
Let me tell you a story. We knew about a small and somewhat successful politician representing our area. He was a good man, an honest politician. Never stole the money of the people. Did great stuff, helped the poor. And because he didn’t get any commission or never stole from all sorts of road construction projects, he kept losing money. He had to sell his private properties to stay alive in the election campaigns. He tried tried and tried but hardly made it to the council. You know what happened in the end? That man died a debtor. Isn’t it ironic? Was that fair? Will there be a movie based on his life story? Not in this universe! But will there be movie about the corrupted politicians who stole money and did bad to the people and yet somehow managed to hide them in plain sight? In fact there won’t be just one movie at least a few.
So do you think hope made it really easy or comforting for him? Do you think hope made it all better for him? I think hope is what ruined him. Not just him but his whole family. This is just one story. What about all the other average men and women who keep trying and still fail?
This is where we must start using our brains. There’s a fine line between hope & stupidity. When the universe starts giving you signs that, something is not going to work out as expected, please think thoroughly. Don’t think twice. Think more than that. Consult someone. Talk to someone whom you can share your thought freely. That’ll help. None of us are perfect. None of us can say that all of us will always act wise. Just like a road, life will have peaks valleys and occasional bumps. But the important thing is to learn how to hold on to the wheels and steer it to the place to the most suitable destination because all of us can’t do everything that we want to!
