When hope leaves
The relationship between hope and faith is one which has been explored by many wise teachers. Hope or the lack of hope is sometimes described as an emotion but can also be thoughts based on experience and statistical odds. As a social scientist I have long had a strong desire to identify what factors affect whether a person grabs holds of hope or sinks into a paralyzing living grave. When a person sinks into that space they may appear to the observer to be perfectly capable of functioning in all areas of their life. Yet, they may be incapable of leaving home or even doing the simplest task at home. They may or may not be able to perform some tasks for loved ones, especially children, but the least bit of activity will exhaust them. The observer will often label them as lazy, undeserving of assistance and, if they receive any public housing, food or cash assistance they may be accused of fraud. True they may have all their limbs and all medical tests will confirm that there is nothing medically keeping them from being self-supporting and self-sufficient in all areas of their lives. Yet they will tell themselves and anyone who asks that they are incapable of moving forward. Some will say that there is no basis to believe that anything they do will make a difference.
Many conditions and experiences can steal hope from an individual, a family or a community. These include:
The metaphysical question concerns the exceptions of those whose similar experience leads to a tenacious faith or even understanding that one can find a way to claim one’s space in the world. Sometimes one can identify the perception of light or a rainbow in the midst of the darkness of the lies which tell one there is no light or rainbow. In many respects, Rosa Parks, Sonia Sotomayor, Bigger Thomas the lead character in Native Son, Harriett Tubman, Maya Angelou, Darnell Moore and a host of others have proven that one can take in millions of lies and still grab hold of hope. The question always, for me, is how did they do that. Some will tell us that one teacher, one relative, one poet, one writer, one scientists or some other unseen force removed the blinders; revealed the lies as lies; provided that sliver of hope which found its way through the cracked prison walls – real or metaphorical. Sometimes that sliver of light combined with the right medication to treat one’s mental illness, a new approach to the treatment of addiction, or the voice of a child which says “Come back mommy.” or “I miss you dad.”
Sometimes someone will see beyond our carefully constructed professionalism to the cracked human who reclaimed hope and decide that if we could make that leap of faith they can to. Sometimes, as my 9-year-old friend L says “You got to standup to the person who is bullying another and tell the truth.” take the hand of the person being bullied and skip to the front of the line.
Blaming the oppressed person for the symptoms of the oppression is an all too easy and common explanation of why one does not create virtual boots and pull oneself up by those virtual bootstraps. Taking a hand and walking the long, rocky road in bare feet to the freedom of hope is not only more compassionate but stands the tests of science. Science tells us when we have lost the thread of or it has become as fine as a single silk thread we need x-ray vision provided by the eyes of those who have proven the lies wrong.
Written August 22, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
The relationship between hope and faith is one which has been explored by many wise teachers. Hope or the lack of hope is sometimes described as an emotion but can also be thoughts based on experience and statistical odds. As a social scientist I have long had a strong desire to identify what factors affect whether a person grabs holds of hope or sinks into a paralyzing living grave. When a person sinks into that space they may appear to the observer to be perfectly capable of functioning in all areas of their life. Yet, they may be incapable of leaving home or even doing the simplest task at home. They may or may not be able to perform some tasks for loved ones, especially children, but the least bit of activity will exhaust them. The observer will often label them as lazy, undeserving of assistance and, if they receive any public housing, food or cash assistance they may be accused of fraud. True they may have all their limbs and all medical tests will confirm that there is nothing medically keeping them from being self-supporting and self-sufficient in all areas of their lives. Yet they will tell themselves and anyone who asks that they are incapable of moving forward. Some will say that there is no basis to believe that anything they do will make a difference.
Many conditions and experiences can steal hope from an individual, a family or a community. These include:
- Being denied access to the tools which allow one to earn a decent income and provide for oneself and one’s family – education, degrees, drivers license, promotions, health care, etc.
- Repeatedly being told that one is less than, less valuable then, less deserving of care, less deserving of access to a decent grocery store, transportation, health care and other basic necessities.
- Being subject to questioning and arrest just because one is a particular color, religion, gender or “different” in some other socially constructed manner.
- Living in a combat zone as a civilian or solder for a significant period of time.
- Living under a repressive regime for a significant period of time. The regime may be a ghetto, a country or a facility such as a prison.
- Death or multiple deaths of loves ones, especially children..
- Mental illness including addiction, clinical depression, bipolar depression, schizophrenia, acute anxiety, PTSD
The metaphysical question concerns the exceptions of those whose similar experience leads to a tenacious faith or even understanding that one can find a way to claim one’s space in the world. Sometimes one can identify the perception of light or a rainbow in the midst of the darkness of the lies which tell one there is no light or rainbow. In many respects, Rosa Parks, Sonia Sotomayor, Bigger Thomas the lead character in Native Son, Harriett Tubman, Maya Angelou, Darnell Moore and a host of others have proven that one can take in millions of lies and still grab hold of hope. The question always, for me, is how did they do that. Some will tell us that one teacher, one relative, one poet, one writer, one scientists or some other unseen force removed the blinders; revealed the lies as lies; provided that sliver of hope which found its way through the cracked prison walls – real or metaphorical. Sometimes that sliver of light combined with the right medication to treat one’s mental illness, a new approach to the treatment of addiction, or the voice of a child which says “Come back mommy.” or “I miss you dad.”
Sometimes someone will see beyond our carefully constructed professionalism to the cracked human who reclaimed hope and decide that if we could make that leap of faith they can to. Sometimes, as my 9-year-old friend L says “You got to standup to the person who is bullying another and tell the truth.” take the hand of the person being bullied and skip to the front of the line.
Blaming the oppressed person for the symptoms of the oppression is an all too easy and common explanation of why one does not create virtual boots and pull oneself up by those virtual bootstraps. Taking a hand and walking the long, rocky road in bare feet to the freedom of hope is not only more compassionate but stands the tests of science. Science tells us when we have lost the thread of or it has become as fine as a single silk thread we need x-ray vision provided by the eyes of those who have proven the lies wrong.
Written August 22, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
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