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I got this word yesterday morning but didn't have a chance to write about it till tonight. I spent the four hours it took me to get home from Liverpool yesterday thinking about HOPE and how I was going to approach it. Even now I'm not entirely sure but I've run out of time so you'll have to put up with whatever I happen to come up with now.
I'm not sure what I think about the word HOPE. I use it all the time. In fact right now I'm hoping that Moose will be ok as we dropped him off at the Kennels for the weekend as we're going away. But we all know what HOPE is but I don't think its easy to explain. I spent some time chatting with my mate to see if I could come up with anything inspiring.
To me HOPE is "The Light at the end of the Tunnel". When we are uncertain about the outcome of an event we have HOPE that it will turn out well.
I grew up in Edmonton and we often used to take trips to Victoria. For those of you know the route between the Rockies and Vancouver know that you go through the town of HOPE. On one of these trips my Dad told me how the Town got its name. He said that the pilgrims named it once they got there after so many hard years of making their way through the mountains.
I looked up the origin of the town HOPE. Unfortunately the story that my dad told is just that, a story. I still feel that the town of Hope is a good representation of the meaning of HOPE.
I love the drive through the Rockies but even to this day I find I end up getting quite bored by the end and wish I was there already. I always feel that by the time we get to Hope we are nearly there...the mountains start to flatten out and I know that we're nearly there...it's the light at the end of the tunnel.
HOPE is more than just wanting..."I hope you have a nice day" is not the same as "I want you to have a nice day". Hope is something that you have when you are uncertain of its outcome. This could be anything from hoping you get the job that you had the interview for last week, or hoping that the cute guy in the next office calls you for that date he promised, or even hoping they find a cure for that disease you've been diagnosed with.
Hope is what keeps us going. It's the optimist in all of us...even a pessimist can have HOPE. No matter how negative our outlook can get there is always a glimmer of HOPE within us (even if we have to dig for it!).
11 comments:
Wow,the second time the name of Hope BC has come before my eyes in the past week.
I have a friend visiting there right now.
The definition that you have put on this word is so very true for me. Great post. :)
I was sure there was a town called Desperation somewhere but it turns out it was in a Stephen King novel I read. Anyway well done, looks like you pulled the rabbit out of the hat again.
I find the driving forces behind the peoples that first populated the North American lands to be quite curious. Whereas when I take off for a new city I might be nervous, I also know that at the end of my journey, I'll find accomodation, a bathroom, food, transportation, and, if I need it, medical help. There's people there and things there.
Whereas, when the land was essentially bare, you had NO idea what you were going to find at the end of the rainbow. The only reports you had were from a few drunken explorers and those were fuzzy at best. You really were venturing into the unknown.
And yet, despite all this...they carried these great hopes and wishes for their futures. Why? Simply because life was bad enough where they were that ANYTHING had to be better? Or were they too dumb to know otherwise?
Fascinating.
I remember when I was a kid and we would vacation out to Vancouver as well and we always stopped at the Waterslides in Hope. Right on the highway. I also got pulled over outside of Hope once, that was a sucky day.
Great post!
My husband was just in Hope two days ago, actually.
I love that name for a locale. It makes the place seem so cheery, regardless of what it might be in all actuality.
"Hope is something that you have when you are uncertain of its outcome." That's exactly it. And I like the part about the optimist in all of us, too. No one can take hope away from us--if we "dig for it" it's always there. Great post!
I was just in Hope too. I believe my words to Aaron were "I guess they called this Hope so at least there be some of it here. This place is a dump!"
There's a sign on the freeway not far from my place that always makes the pessimist in me laugh. It says something like (the numbers are not correct by any means):
Coquitlam 9
Hope 112
I always think "Yeah, you can have Coquitlam, but hope is way the hell and gone."
I loved your analogy of Hope being the light at the end of the "tunnel" of your journey. Great imagery. Funny how you mentioned Hope as a town, when I forst got this word I looked up how many towns named Hope there are in the US. Surprisingly less than I thought.
Hi Sweetheart,
Well you did it again, very well thought out even though you said it wasn't. Hope as the light at the end of the tunnel... yes I like that.
Mum
All I can think of when I think of the town of Hope is how exciting it was many years ago (long before there was any such thing as Hollywood North) and the movie Rambo was filmed there. The gas station exploding was the biggest thing to happen there EVER.
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