Thinking about hope lately, I put together a short list of some of the contradictory things that have been written about it:
"Hope is the thing with feathers/that perches in the soul" (Emily Dickinson)
"...Hope, like a bat,/strikes the walls with timid wing,/bangs its head on rotted ceilings..." (Baudelaire)
"The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man..." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
"Abandon all hope, you who enter here." (Dante--inscription on the gates of Hell)
"Abandon Hope and embrace Joy." (Spinoza, with thanks to Elizabeth)
"We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment." (Pema Chodron, Buddhist nun and teacher)
...and so on. What do you say?
A Marriage At Sea
4 days ago