Hope in the times of coronavirus
Friend asked me if I could write about hope. A friend who hangs on to hope even when life seems hopeless and everything but hopeful. This is a man who defies everyday challenges with grace and dignity, with strength of character and the persevering stamina of a champ. In moments when others would break and panic, fail and hide, he rises and shines, conquers and succeeds. This is the man asking me to write about hope.
It isn’t that he doesn’t see hope. It isn’t that he is not feeling it. It isn’t that he doesn’t believe in it. He is asking me to write about it, to put into print what he and several others are feeling and wanting to see shared. They are hopeful and hoping to spread the message that hopelessness is not the answer to what is ailing us. It is hope that will bring us to the other end of this Corona Era in one piece. But not just any hope.
The 24/7/365 cable news networks find oxygen and inertia in times of crises. Their sensationalised opinion-heavy broadcasts of the Coronavirus take on pandemic levels of hysteria. They profit by stoking the embers of the psychoneurosis that excites the emotional and sensory reactions of their audience. Delirium and agitation of the masses is the currency that most benefits cable networks pretending to peddle news.
Those who are broken by this Covid-19 moment, striving in crisis mode and drowning in the adrenaline that comes with believing in this fear and panic, have invested in the illusion that they are in control of their lives and even of those around them. And so their hope is to rebuild the world around themselves, to regain that feeling of invincibility and security in possessions, wealth, intellect, or relationships. But this is a frail and puny hope. A useless, disillusioned pipe dream.
Real hope is a powerful message in times when things are comfortable enough but still in line for betterment. It grows legs when there is a desire and anticipation to want things to happen differently and for the better, and to happen in real time. It is the confidence with which we expect, and the comfort in feeling we might get there, that drives hope for most of us.
When this hope finds tangible believers, it is always related to someone or something. A cause or a person. A belief or ideal. Trust and reliance are synonymous with hope. Youth, like my nephew Karun, feed it with more gusto. It is relatable when it comes garbed as useful and in the interest of another or others.
It makes one feel like a custodian who is guarding through their actions the future of others and not just self.
Where this hope finds currency, it has guardians championing its relevance. Keepers of hope instill confidence and faith in others for the belief in their greater cause. Messengers of hope, its salesmen if you will, stand guard like sentinels, soldiering away through the passage from one point to the next, where hope moves for its own survival before it is lived and celebrated as reality.
Challenging times show us our true mettle as people. They call to action our fortitude. They challenge us to believe in the future. Doubting and questioning are the unwanted pregnancies of panic and fear.
Hopelessness the offspring of dread and a shamelessly ratings-driven media. Mob mentality and mob hysteria make the best of us turn into sceptics. They make us lose sight of our ability to reflect, study, debate and then act with maturity. Even easier it is to be in with the popular crowd. It takes a daring man, a well-fed soul, and a mature mind to see hope when doom is the celebration of the moment.
Tomorrow will come. It may come a tad slower than it used to come before Corona gripped our lives. Those that reach the other side unbroken and full of hope will be the leaders and changemakers of tomorrow.
This is what my friend — a man whose whole life has been riddled with Corona moments — wants me to tell you. Hope is the only way to live and be.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)
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