Somewhere early in life, probably in Sunday school, Worldwide Pablo first heard a phrase that has since become something of a nonmusical earworm. Perhaps you’ve heard it too:
“You can live a lifetime without fame or fortune; weeks without food; days without water; minutes without air; but not a moment without hope.”
We’ve heard this proverb repeated so many times, almost always in church, obediently attached to a feel-good homily as one of those “sermon examples” or “takeaways” clergy types like to talk about, that we’ve become rather numbed by its incidence: insistent, yes, but facile and undemanding. Novocaine for the soul, as it were.
WWP has been giving this bromide some more thought lately. A friend approaches WWP with the quandary: I know how to deal with a crisis of career. Or a crisis of confidence. Even a crisis of faith. But what am I do when I experience a crisis of hope?
Today’s aphorism, of course, is no help. It is proscriptive, not prescriptive — an architect’s sketch minus the blueprints. Hope needed, but not necessarily offered. Know hope, but find it yourself.
So what to tell WWP’s amigo? Hang in there — hope will come along? Wait for a new motto or maxim? Pray for hope? Act as though you have hope, and it shall be returned to you? Or perhaps: Pray that priests and rabbis and pastors stop repeating that hope cliché?
One of these might be music to someone’s ears.
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