The only thing left in Pandora's Box after its payload of vices was unintentionally dispersed.

Apparently the myth-makers wanted us to believe that it was all we needed to overcome the cohortes of evils we'd errantly let loose on the world.

A poem by Emily Bronte

Hope Was but a timid friend;
She sat without the grated den,
Watching how my fate would tend,
Even as selfish-hearted men.

She was cruel in her fear;
Through the bars one dreary day,
I looked out to see her there,
And she turned her face away!

Like a false guard, false watch keeping,
Still, in strife, she whispered peace;
She would sing while I was weeping;
If I listened, she would cease.

False she was, and unrelenting;
When my last joys strewed the ground,
Even Sorrow saw, repenting,
Those sad relics scattered round;

Hope, whose whisper would have given
Balm to all my frenzied pain,
Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven,
Went, and ne'er returned again!


This is public domain

A shop on Newbury Street in between Fairfax and Exeter. It is run by a guy named Micheal who does spiritual cleansings in and around Boston. He once gave us the materials to rid our dorm room of a nasty ghost. Don't laugh... our dorm room was a 270 year-old town house formerly owned by French royalty. He was friends with Brandon Lee.

So anyways, if you are in Boston and need organic soaps, information about faeries, handmade candles that burn for 36 hours, incense, votives, books on the paranormal, or imported handcrafted italian jewelry and bath treatments, this is the place for you. There is always some sort of soothing music playing like gregorian chant or string quartets. I've never felt more at peace anywhere than I do when I'm in that shop. It's like my spirit stops holding it's breath.

Micheal decided to name the place Hope because of something that happened to him there. About ten years ago he inherited the building (which in mortal terms means "something worth truckloads of cash") and then sat in the storefront for a week, wondering what to do with it. Just him and a chair and some coffee. Then, on the fifth day, he heard a noise coming from a wall-hung light fixture, and he started scraping away the remnants of caulk and paint that held it in place. The fixture fell off, and behind he saw an old, small plaque. The plaque had a hole in the center, upside-down 2's on the upper corners, and "Hope" was written underneath.

When you go there, tell Micheal that Josh the composer from Texas sent you. You'll know you're getting close when you smell the nag champa, if you're downwind from the place.
The original noder writes truly that hope was the last thing left in Pandora's Box after Pandora loosed its evils on the world.

However, I have been informed by my friend Alfred (motto: "getting a classical education so you don't have to") that in the paradigm of the ancient Greeks, hope was not exactly the cheery thing with feathers we associate with the word today. What was left in the box might better be described as "delusion."

That humans were left with hope was actually an extra, super-cruel punishment from the gods -- it made them continuously believe that they could somehow survive in their ruined world.

This is not to say that the modern interpretation of the myth is inappropriate. These archetypal stories always have a koan-like aspect, a measure of meaning that is not implicit, but touched off in the reader by their powerful and ageless imagery. Just as Camus turned Sisyphus from a suffering wretch into a symbol of humanist/existentialist transcendence (see The Myth of Sisyphus), we are free to recast the ultimate evil in Pandora's box as our great friend.

Hope... What a terrible feeling. Some view hope as a treasured ideal that can never be taken away from us. I beg to differ. Hope in it self is just a marvelously crafed form of denial. We think of hope as a form of faith or a saving grace, "If I would have abandoned all hope then i might never had made it."

Hope is just an feeling thought up to help ease our minds. It is exactly the same as denial if one puts some thought into it. Hope is a sugar coated denial if that helps you better understand. We hope that a girl will like us, even though there is no chance in hell that she would give you the time of day. Therefore you are in denial about the obvious, you stand no chance at making it with her so why bother at all. But still, in the back of your head, you find your self thinking that you stand a chance.

The problem is that hope is almost a parasite in its own right. It bonds with us and it is almost impossible to shake off. We need hope, or we think that we need hope, and hope thrives off of us becuase we pass it on to others just like a parasitic disease or maybe a virus. Considering that viruses are spred easily and can't be cured only suppressed. No matter what the odds, we as humans always HOPE for the best. 1:1,000,000 odds and we still think that we have a chance. Who are we kidding? In the end we are just hidding ourselves from an inevitable hurt.

So the next time you are faced with a problem, try to understand where i am coming from with this. For some my Theory of Hope as denial is hard to swallow, but give it time and that right moment of utmost despair and then you'll understand.

"Hope is contagious!"
-- Greta Thunberg


Still looking for hope?

Need inspiration?

May I suggest continuing your quest by following any of the dozen stepping stones below?

Bloom

Dawn

Echo

Embrace

Harbor

Infinite

Lighthouse

Resilience

Roots

Sparrow

Tide

Whisper


39

Hope (?), n. [Cf. Icel. hop a small bay or inlet.]

1.

A sloping plain between mountain ridges.

[Obs.]

2.

A small bay; an inlet; a haven.

[Scot.]

Jamieson.

 

© Webster 1913.


Hope, n. [AS., akin to D. hoop, hope, Sw. hopp, Dan. haab, MHG. hoffe. Hope in forlorn hope is different word. See Forlorn hope, under Forlorn.]

1.

A desire of some good, accompanied with an expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable; an expectation of something which is thought to be desirable; confidence; pleasing expectancy.

The hypocrite's hope shall perish. Job vii. 13.

He wished, but not with hope. Milton.

New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. Keble.

2.

One who, or that which, gives hope, furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good.

The Lord will be the hope of his people. Joel iii. 16.

A young gentleman of great hopes, whose love of learning was highly commendable. Macaulay.

3.

That which is hoped for; an object of hope.

Lavina is thine elder brother's hope. Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.


Hope, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Hoped (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Hoping.] [AS. hopian; akin to D. hopen, Sw. hopp, Dan. haabe, G. hoffen. See 2nd Hope.]

1.

To entertain or indulge hope; to cherish a desire of good, or of something welcome, with expectation of obtaining it or belief that it is obtainable; to expect; -- usually followed by for.

"Hope for good success."

Jer. Taylor.

But I will hope continually. Ps. lxxi. 14.

2.

To place confidence; to trust with confident expectation of good; -- usually followed by in.

"I hope in thy word."

Ps. cxix. 81.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. Ps. xlii. 11.

 

© Webster 1913.


Hope (?), v. t.

1.

To desire with expectation or with belief in the possibility or prospect of obtaining; to look forward to as a thing desirable, with the expectation of obtaining it; to cherish hopes of.

We hope no other from your majesty. Shak.

[Charity] hopeth all things. 1 Cor. xiii. 7.

2.

To expect; to fear.

[Obs.] "I hope he will be dead."

Chaucer.

Hope is often used colloquially regarding uncertainties, with no reference to the future. "I hope she takes me to be flesh and blood."

Mrs. Centlivre.

 

© Webster 1913.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.