Hope against hope

I wrote earlier of this being my year of hope. 

Well, hope is harder to come by when the clouds gather with such aggression and persistence that there's no sign there ever was a sun. 

While my career is undeniably on the upswing, it's in a place that's wrestling with every fiber of its existence with external and economic forces. Living through this again feels in some psychologically parallel universe like living in an abusive relationship. The cycle of emotional violence for all involved from executer to executed should be criminalized. 

And speaking of economic forces, I'm watching from between squinted eyes my retirement savings slip out of the till. As my bank goes through some identity shifts, I keep fighting the urge to retro and go all Great Depression, shoving money in the mattress. 

There appear signs in this society that make it seem less a haven for diverse peoples and ideals than a stagnant cesspool of acrid exchanges and acrimony bubbling up from its depths. 

But here's the deal. When things seem hopeless, that's when hope is essential. 

Call it seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, or call it being an optimist or having faith. 

Fear is a very powerful force. It can mobilize you, or it can freeze you in your tracks. It can make rational people give in to irrational activity. Fear can blind even those typically gifted with foresight of clarity. 

When wading through a sunless swamp mired in fear and muck, hope is harder to come by. But it's in that darkness that even a flicker of hope can help you see there's a way out. 

What is they say? Hope springs eternal. 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never Is, but always To be blest:

The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,

An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733