I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on TV. I’m not on TV, and I’m not a doctor either. I have had a few thoughts, however, about the anatomy of hope the past day or so.
1. Hope takes work
So during the football game this past weekend an entire city entire league entire sports-loving nation held its collective breath as the Dallas Cowboys, decent only recent, found themselves situated across the trenches from the utterly dominant and unstoppable New England Patriots. Well, the Good Guys kept it close for a while, a much bigger “while” than most dreamt. The parts of me, the parts of all of us watching who risked the ludicrous thought that the Cowboys might pull it out, we all had quite a workout last Sunday. In very simplest terms, the payoff for following a team sport is the rollercoaster we ride when we risk believing that the odds might end up wrong. The parts of me that dare trust the wings of surprise certainly got a workout last Sunday. Hope gets a great workout during football season, and the training it gets during silly things like sporting events keeps it strong during things that actually matter like well, real life.
2. Hope’s the last thing to go
In an Education class I took last spring the teacher said that in the unfortunate event that an academic institution has to shut its doors, the very last thing to go is the Registrar’s office. It shouldn’t be any big surprise then that this is the place that is most guarded, with elaborate plans for offsite backups, double-locked doors and actual federal laws that specifically govern how that specific office is run. Fitting, since this is the place where all the school’s most important, and sensitive, data are stored, i.e., academic records and the proof of students’ accomplishments. Once the institution closes up and many of the graduates begin disseminating or even dying out, there is no official record of what that place did if it isn’t in the Registrar’s records. Its history, you’d say, reduces to what’s in those cabinets. In a different class last spring, a different professor said that “you can tell what is important to an educational institution by what no one ever wants to talk about.” Wanna know how well you know someone? Let’s see if you can tell me about their very deepest, core-level, guttural hopes. Can you tell me what they are holding out for, what their “one day, when…” looks like, the “one day, when…” that they actually believe will happen? Whatever that is, it is the fuel of their soul. Healthy people don’t easily volunteer those things, and you getting there is supposed to take some digging. Know this: Once you have had that conversation, I know your friend well enough to know that he/she/it didn’t yield that treasury lightly, and he/she/it won’t forget that you’ve seen it. A person’s hopes are the last thing to die and for a great many one of the most unsettling to share.
3. Hope is best done in groups
I’ll be honest and say I enjoy football/basketball/most athletic events far more when I’m with fellow fans of the sport. Fans of the opposite team, fans of neither of the ones playing, that’s all fine, as long as that person is into the game we’re watching. The tension in the room this weekend was sort of intoxicating, knowing how hard most of us there were pulling for the Cowboys. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who dared, who risked, getting excited enough to let others know that I actually believed things might turn out in our favor. As is so common for me of late,I was glad I wasn’t the only one. (Notice the plural verbage in this verse , this one, and this one.) Hope works best, most efficiently, at its highest, when shared. For best results, use in groups.
Be on the lookout for a gathering of people with a strong hope, who are pursuing life together and cherishing whatever dreams they dare to believe might actually come true. They walk differently, talk differently, and are probably sports fans of some degree.
And don’t give up, ‘cuz they’re out there, I promise. (Count me in their number.)
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