Optimism versus Hope

Someone once said to me that ‘some people think the world is all sunshine and butterflies’. She is right, and that, for me is the definition of optimism. The idea that everyone is lovely and well-meaning in their actions, that somehow everything will all be fine; that I don’t have to do anything about it, I just believe it will all work out well, so it will. That kind of responsibility-shucking, blind faith can apply to our attitudes to all aspects of life, from the world stage in terms of climate change, genocidal conflict, and the systemic abuse and abrogation of women and their human rights, or more domestically in the workplace or our closest relationships (including that with ourselves). It’s not positive, it’s just imitating the ostrich.

The other side of this coin is hopelessness. The sense that nothing and noone can make any difference, so that it’s pointless to even try. This goes hand in hand with cynicism: the ‘everyone is out to get me so I’d better be on the lookout (or even be preemptive)’ stance.

Hope is different. Hope is facing down the worst of the awfulness and refusing to give up. Hope is active. It’s about seeing the reality, and holding on to the possibility that things can get better even in the darkest moments. It’s about taking action, however small, to move towards that. For me there’s something about moving from the passive to the active which is really pertinent, and that sense of doing something constructive, however small, empowers me to carry on.

In our day to day dealings with other humans it may be about looking for the positive in the person while simultaneously acknowledging that what they are doing may not be okay. Separating the actions from the person; prizing the person while not condoning the actions. They are not bad, the thing they are doing is bad.

There are a few world ‘leaders’ out there right now who are testing that practise to the max. But in my personal life, I hold this to be true. Having been a person who, for many years expected the worst from people and went into most conversations armed for confrontation, I know that my life is sweeter, kinder, and more generous since I began to look for the good, to try to understand why people acted in certain ways. And weirdly, when I started to do this, I was met with more open and generous responses. Win-win.

In our response to world events, hopeful action may take the form of joining with other like-minded people to become more active in whichever arena we feel most strongly about. (More about this another time.)

Facing the worst of reality, and deciding to work in some small way towards something better. This is not sunshine and butterflies, this is holding hope.