Both Hope and Despair

Just after I finished posting my last edition of this blog on the subject of Hope and Despair, Lorna and I had a living example of just that – we had a an experience of both hope and despair.  Our cat Trixie (although she is much more Lorna’s cat) who is an indoor branch of the feline species, took the opportunity to explore the great outdoors.  Now I’m not completely convinced that this is an example of synchronicity, I think it is a candidate for this phenomenon.  Here is Lorna’s description of the event as recorded on Facebook: 

I was gardening and I didn't realize the door hadn't latched. Trixie likes to watch me out the window when I am in the yard. When she noticed the door was slightly open, she decided to explore a bit. I had just finished my work and turned to see a large orange and black cat scoot under the back porch. I was wearing my outside (baseball) hat, which scares her for some reason.

 

I thought it can't be Trixie; Trixie's not that big. Then I saw the open door.

She next ran out from under the back porch - Greg caught a glimpse-and likely went from there under the deck. Ater a few minutes of calling her then googling about indoor cats escaping outdoors, I tramped around the forsythia bush as suggested but I frightened her. She startled me by darting out from under it. She disappeared before I could see where she went

 

Anyhow, we left both doors open and put out treats and familiar smelling things like her litter box and blanket. I had an email from my daughter to distract me.

 

So, just as I got to the point in the email where I was telling her how unnerving it was, and how worried I was and what if she didn't come back, and wasn't it lucky she'd been chipped when I heard a small "meep," so I looked over my shoulder. Greg had just seen her in the bedroom, so he quietly closed the back door, and motioned me to close the front door. She must have walked right behind me without my noticing. Anyhow I tiptoed over and closed the door.

 

She came back about an hour after she got out. So, I have Joanna to thank because I decided to reply to her, and thus let Trixie come in on her own !!!

 

This is a great example of how hope and despair can be experienced in the same event.  The reaction by both Lorna and me swung between both ends of what I can describe as the hope and despair axis – despair that we will never see Trixie and again and we will never have another cat to the hope she will return if we do what Google advises. 

 I hope that any times of despair will be accompanied with hope on your journey. 

 

Hope and Despair

I recently listened to an episode of On Being with host Krista Tippett, which asked the questions: What is filling you with despair? And what is giving you hope?  These are very good questions for these times.  So, I would like to pose those questions to the readers of this blog, what is filling you with despair? And what is giving you hope?

Before you consider these questions, let me clarify what I mean by the terms hope and despair.  Generally, despair is defined as being without hope.  However, this is not all that helpful until we define hope.  I believe it is better, for our purposes, to define this as being resigned to the inevitable; to have no possibility (hope) that the current situation will not improve and will lead to the end that is in front of us and there is no possibility that something will intervene to prevent that from happening.

Turning to hope, it is often the case that hope is used synonymously with optimism.  I can be optimistic that some situation or event will turn out okay in the end regardless – regardless of what?  There is nothing that is required of you to bring about the outcome you are wanting.  Hope, on the other hand, is to my mind, the possibility that things will turn out for the best if forces are brought to bear on that issue and work to bring about the desired outcome.

That force is sometimes – perhaps even often – a divine one which will bring about the best of all possible worlds or at least the best of possible outcome in this case.  This is best expressed by the saying of Julian of Norwich, the 14th century English mystic, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."   However, in hope there is also the possibility thahopt the forces will be based here on earth comprised of people working to achieve the desired ends.  Sometimes these forces combine as in the Social Gospel movement to bring about the Kingdom of God which will encompass the ends that are hoped for.  This can be considered faith in action.

It is easy to despair these days with the wildfires raging across many parts of Western Canada, and warfare raging in Ukraine, and the slow-motion destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza.  However, we must not give up hope and let despair win. 

So, I will leave you with the questions I began with: What is filling you with despair? And what is giving you hope?  

  

Is That All There Is?

Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent.  We lit the first Advent candle for Hope.  I am wondering this what exactly is hope?  Is it something that people hang on to when all else fails and there is no other option, or is it an ongoing way of being? 

In our funeral liturgy the Committal includes the reassurance, “in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.”   So, to live in hope is to live ‘as if’.  We may not have absolute proof but we live in the faith that God is with us.

The opposite of hope is despair.  If we are in despair, we have given up hope that there is more to life than we are experiencing at present.  Does this mean that it is a life which is grinding you down physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually?  It certainly can be any or all of those.  But it can also be a life which seems to have just doesn’t have any more meaning. 

What comes to mind is the is the song ‘Is That All There Is’ sung by the great Peggy Lee.  Listening to the song again on You Tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M). This seems to be a song of despair.  The chorus suggests that life is without meaning and so embrace wine, women and song:

Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

No, there is not much hope in that approach to life.  However, in the song the singer asks when her lover leaves her, “is that all there is to love?”   She poignantly suggests that she knows what we, the audience, are thinking, if she believes that is all there is to life, why doesn’t she end it?  Peggy replies that she is going to respond, that she is not ready for that final disappointment:

Cause I know just as well as I'm standing here talking to you
And when that final moment comes and I'm breathing my last breath,
I'll be saying to myself
Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

Perhaps there is some hope in that approach but it doesn’t seem like it is truly hopeful.  The idea of living life to the fullest because that is all there is seem to me to be a cry of despair as there is nothing else but what we have now and there is the eternal question, ‘is that all there is?’ 

The answer to that question is to live in the sure and certain hope that we have meaning in life that there is more to life than just breaking out the booze and having a ball.  As a Christian I find the ultimate meaning in the eternal presence of Jesus Christ as my Saviour and in the sure and certain hope of new life.  However, I believe that many people can and do find other sources of meaning.  The meaning comes from living in the knowledge that you are not the only thing that matters; in the knowledge that you are not the centre of the universe.  We have the sure and certain hope that we are all more than that and can live in ways that embrace life beyond breaking out the booze and having a ball.   No, that is not all there is. 

Blessings on that journey which we are all taking; the journey of life.