Hope

This is our second week of a new year and time is flying. Some of us can look back over the past and be amazed at the changes that occurred in our lives. Then there are those who continue on pretty much the same. Their groove in the world steady. So I've been thinking about hope. I've been thinking about what I hope for and what gives me hope. It's pretty much the same as last year and the year before that and before that.

Emily Dickinson wrote;
"Hope" is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

What do you good people of boards hope for? How do you feel about hope? Is it silly to hope, do you need it to get you through?

I need it. I hope to continue being the person I am, with maybe a few little things smoothed out. I hope my work grows and I can be the best I can be at what I do. I hope my mam is happy in her own little wold. I hope my dad finds peace without her around. I hope 2016 is the best year I've had
because they have been crap since 2011. I hope to fall in love at the right time with the right man. I hope to go on a little holiday alone, I'm weird like that. I hope my friend finds a bit of contentment with her lot. I hope my other friend has a great adventure with her new beginning. All of those things help keep me going.

Come now, don't be shy

Sheeps

thats great

Yep it's pretty great alright.

MRnotlob606

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

ScumLord

Deleted User wrote: »

This is our second week of a new year

It's actually still the first week of the new years. The 1st to the 3rd was considered the end of week 52 of last year.

How do you feel about hope?

I feel hope is a descriptive word and not a way of life. Hoping for things isn't going to make you happy, more productive, and not hoping for things doesn't mean good things won't happen.

ScumLord

ScumLord wrote: »

It's actually still the first week of the new years. The 1st to the 3rd was considered the end of week 52 of last year.

I feel hope is a descriptive word and not a way of life. Hoping for things isn't going to make you happy, more productive, and not hoping for things doesn't mean good things won't happen.

So you have no hopes?

jack presley

[Deleted User] wrote: »

This is our second week of a new year and time is flying.

How are you in the second week of the new year and the rest of us are stuck in the first?

Lucas Castroman

I find I'm so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at a start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

jack presley

jack presley wrote: »

How are you in the second week of the new year and the rest of us are stuck in the first?

I was a bit fed up of it so I thought I would move things on for myself.

Pac1Man

Andy Dufresne, crawled through a river of sh!t and came out clean on the other side.

Ant695

Bane:

mad muffin

Old Irish proverb: Live in hope. Die in despair.

jimgoose

Better by far hope in your soul than to be a nun in a bath.

SEPT 23 1989

now there's a bubble that needs bursting

Duggy747

I hope I have money for this fecking wedding of mine this year :pac:

Tried the couches, not much in there...

valoren

I would subscribe to that old frame of mind;
Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Boom_Bap

I had a dream about Hope the other night.


It was Hope Solo, the national goal tender for the womens USA soccer ball team.

Medusa22

I'm not a very optimistic person in general, and usually I am quite pessimistic about things, but I have hope, hope that things will change, hope that I can work on things, if you have no hope at all then you really are in the depths of despair. I've been there, and I never want to go back.

I hope that a SaaS application related to education I've worked on for quite a while somehow gains users and grows in a saturated market.. I want it to succeed or fail so I can have my easy evenings back. I'm months or years away from knowing that unfortunately.

Sky King

Equality may rot, fraternity wither, liberty may die on the vine.

But hope? Hope is a survivor, and will not die.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

pickarooney

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Even in your dreams you get caught (or forced into a threesome)... There is no hope.

Also she's the one might hit you a clatter.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

ScumLord

Deleted User wrote: »

So you have no hopes?

What's that even supposed to mean? All I see here are nice sayings that get completely ignored once you've clicked like on facebook because, generally sayings like this have no practical application.


I have plans for the year, some things I want to save for, some things I want to experience. I don't hope I'll achieve them, I'll save my money, buy my things and go where I want to go. If something happens that I can't achieve these things, no big woop, they're not essential.

I don't hope for world peace because it's a nonsensical thing to hope for, It's like hoping rain will fall on everyone else around me, but not me.

Ruu

Fear keeps me on the edge and alert!

Maximus Alexander

Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.

Summer wind

"So we beat on, boats against the current
Borne back ceaselessly into the past".

You should always have the hope that helps you to keep beating on. Life without hope is unthinkable.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I find people often devote too much time to hoping for things instead of getting on with their lives. Hope and dreams are all fine but they are pointless without actions.

I hope my family will be well and happy. I hope the weather this year is better. But, I don't dwell on these hopes and just get on with life. You can over think things at times.

etoughguy

At the risk of coming across as a tosser, hope is not a strategy to getting things. If you hope for all these things and they don't happen you will most likely beat yourself up. If you want something badly enough then find out what needs to be done and take action, hoping wont do much.

Barry Badrinath

Having hope is just opening yourself up for disappointment in the future.

I'm happy being miserable.

Birneybau

"If there is hope, it lies with the proles".

etoughguy

etoughguy wrote: »

At the risk of coming across as a tosser, hope is not a strategy to getting things. If you hope for all these things and they don't happen you will most likely beat yourself up. If you want something badly enough then find out what needs to be done and take action, hoping wont do much.

You're right. Hope isn't a strategy to get us things but it can help. In fact feeling hopeless is a pretty sad place to be. When we have hope we can strive for more out of life. It can motivate us to plan and act to ensure we get the things we want. Of course there are hopes which are beyond our control but which I believe are part of what makes us human. Just because you can't create good things or happiness for another doesn't mean you can't hope for them.

ScumLord

ScumLord wrote: »

What's that even supposed to mean? All I see here are nice sayings that get completely ignored once you've clicked like on facebook because, generally sayings like this have no practical application.


I have plans for the year, some things I want to save for, some things I want to experience. I don't hope I'll achieve them, I'll save my money, buy my things and go where I want to go. If something happens that I can't achieve these things, no big woop, they're not essential.

I don't hope for world peace because it's a nonsensical thing to hope for, It's like hoping rain will fall on everyone else around me, but not me.

It's ok to believe that some hopes are nonsensical and it's ok to believe that hope can keep us ticking over. One of the great things about this world is the different perspectives people have on life. I'm interested in them all

Username here

ScumLord wrote: »

I have plans for the year, some things I want to save for, some things I want to experience. I don't hope I'll achieve them, I'll save my money, buy my things and go where I want to go. If something happens that I can't achieve these things, no big woop, they're not essential.

I don't hope for world peace because it's a nonsensical thing to hope for, It's like hoping rain will fall on everyone else around me, but not me.

??

So, you have plans - good for you. Do you know the difference between plans and hope? And do you realise there's a middle ground between things you are planning to do this year, and hoping for world peace?

World peace would be fantastic, but I consider it highly unlikely to happen in any lifetime, let alone mine. So I don't spend too much time hoping for that. But there are plenty of things I hope for - things that are outside my control, but that I would like to happen. I hope my elderly father will be still alive and in good health this time next year. A person close to me has a heart condition - I hope that she too will be ok. I hope the OP gets her wishes. I hope we get some nice weather in Ireland this summer - a decent stretch of sunshine would be lovely. I'm about to go for a run - I hope it doesn't rain while I'm out. See the difference between hoping and planning?

ScumLord wrote: »

What's that even supposed to mean? All I see here are nice sayings that get completely ignored once you've clicked like on facebook because, generally sayings like this have no practical application.

I presume you're being obtuse. What does liking things on FB have to to with hope?

The_Valeyard

You can't lose hope when it's hopeless. You gotta hope more, then put your fingers in your ears and go, "Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah!... "

Maximus Alexander

Username here wrote: »

I'm about to go for a run - I hope it doesn't rain while I'm out.

Heh, just in myself. I hoped that too and got absolutely drowned. Good luck.

Tomorrow I have a potentially difficult day. I hope it goes well

TG1

Hope is a funny one. Too little and you get bogged down in despair, too much and you lose sight of reality... I don't think anyone can really say they don't ever hope, it's human nature. I do try not to get my hopes too high though as life has a way of bringing them crashing down again!

I never hope for the new year to be better than the last though, a year is an awfully long time, every one is going to have ups and downs and hoping the next one will be better means dwelling on the downs of the last one. There's no point in that.

tomwaterford

I hope Waterford win the all Ireland


Or at the very least that all I'll be brave enough to go through with plans I have partially set in motion (not as mysterious/dangerous as it sounds :pac: )

ScumLord

Username here wrote: »

I'm about to go for a run - I hope it doesn't rain while I'm out. See the difference between hoping and planning?

Yeah, you're using it as a descriptive word, others are using it as a mantra for a way of being. You see these sayings attached to a picture on facebook and a load of people like it and give the author a pat on the back. But they don't apply these things in the real world at all.

Saying I hope it doesn't rain is something you think for a second going out the door. Implying that hope is some sort of essential part of your character and that you need it to motivate yourself, or get over a bad experience is just airy fairy thought farts.

Hope can be replaced with the words like, "wouldn't it be nice" and have the exact same meaning, but saying hope just sounds more dramatic and sappy. I think facebook has sent society up it's own hole. But I'll admit, I'm a miserable old sod and people probably shouldn't listen to me.

Maximus Alexander

ScumLord wrote: »

Yeah, you're using it as a descriptive word, others are using it as a mantra for a way of being. You see these sayings attached to a picture on facebook and a load of people like it and give the author a pat on the back. But they don't apply these things in the real world at all.

Saying I hope it doesn't rain is something you think for a second going out the door. Implying that hope is some sort of essential part of your character and that you need it to motivate yourself, or get over a bad experience is just airy fairy thought farts.

Hope can be replaced with the words like, "wouldn't it be nice" and have the exact same meaning, but saying hope just sounds more dramatic and sappy. I think facebook has sent society up it's own hole. But I'll admit, I'm a miserable old sod and people probably shouldn't listen to me.

I don't know, I think that what you're getting at implies that all the things that can materially affect people's lives are directly within their control. As though it is always true that if you do X and Y, then Z is always a guaranteed outcome, thus hope is not relevant and only action counts - but that is not the case.

If someone finds themselves in a situation in life which they consider unacceptable, but escape from that situation is not entirely within their control, then they can take all of the necessary steps to make changes but are still not guaranteed to succeed. And if the prospect of failure is too much to endure, or the odds of failure too high, then hope is an essential tool to avoid despair.

ScumLord

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I don't know, I think that what you're getting at implies that all the things that can materially affect people's lives are directly within their control.

I'm not, most people have little control over their lives. What I'm saying is hope isn't a state of mind that helps you achieve your goals. I will say something like "I hope I survive", but hoping isn't a state I enter, it's just a word I use.

I don't think it's a case of being in a constant state of hope or a constant state of despair.

Leogirl

Maximus Alexander wrote:

If someone finds themselves in a situation in life which they consider unacceptable, but escape from that situation is not entirely within their control, then they can take all of the necessary steps to make changes but are still not guaranteed to succeed. And if the prospect of failure is too much to endure, or the odds of failure too high, then hope is an essential tool to avoid despair.

I'm in a situation like this. I have very aggressive breast cancer. I hope it will be cured+ I'm taking the necessary steps to make that happen. There is no guarantee though but if I let that notion take hold, it's too much to deal with. So right now I'm living in hope while also doing my best to make it happen. Without hope I'd be f*cked!

Maximus Alexander

ScumLord wrote: »

I'm not, most people have little control over their lives. What I'm saying is hope isn't a state of mind that helps you achieve your goals. I will say something like "I hope I survive", but hoping isn't a state I enter, it's just a word I use.

I don't think it's a case of being in a constant state of hope or a constant state of despair.

See, I disagree with the bold part and indeed addressed that in the part of the post you snipped. Hope can be a tool to help you take steps to achieve a goal.

Of course, in life in general, it's not always a case of being in a constant state of hope or a constant state of despair. But there are some cases where hopelessness will lead to despair and without hope that the externalities will align in your favour, you may not have the strength or will to take the relevant action.

Even removing despair from the equation, in order to take risks you need to have hope that you will succeed. Risks by their very nature are partially outside your control and if you can't hope for a positive outcome, the natural reaction is to play it safe.

Leogirl wrote: »

I'm in a situation like this. I have very aggressive breast cancer. I hope it will be cured+ I'm taking the necessary steps to make that happen. There is no guarantee though but if I let that notion take hold, it's too much to deal with. So right now I'm living in hope while also doing my best to make it happen. Without hope I'd be f*cked!

I'm really sorry to hear that. I hope you kick its ass.

ScumLord

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Even removing despair from the equation, in order to take risks you need to have hope that you will succeed. Risks by their very nature are partially outside your control and if you can't hope for a positive outcome, the natural reaction is to play it safe.)

It just doesn't work that way in my head.

Mesrine65

Leogirl wrote: »

I'm in a situation like this. I have very aggressive breast cancer. I hope it will be cured+ I'm taking the necessary steps to make that happen. There is no guarantee though but if I let that notion take hold, it's too much to deal with. So right now I'm living in hope while also doing my best to make it happen. Without hope I'd be f*cked!

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference, hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness...

Take care Leogirl, be well

Maximus Alexander

ScumLord wrote: »

It just doesn't work that way in my head.

Fair enough. Maybe we're arguing over semantics and don't realise it. Maybe the word means something different to you. I equate hope with optimism and I don't think you can be, say an entrepreneur for example, without being optimistic - hopeful.

eamonnq

Better to have hope in your soul, rather than soap in your hole.

ScumLord

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Fair enough. Maybe we're arguing over semantics and don't realise it.

That sounds like something I'd do.

Maybe the word means something different to you. I equate hope with optimism and I don't think you can be, say an entrepreneur for example, without being optimistic - hopeful.

I'd prefer the word optimistic, I feel like the word hope is a very general term that becomes meaningless at times because of the context it's used in, almost verging on mysticism.

I prefer the term optimistic because it allows for alternatives. Generally I try to avoid expectations, I try to avoid falling into the human brain's natural state of making assumptions and getting stuck in a rut. I like to keep the option open, even if they're bad.