Finding Hope in an Unlikely Place
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The protests in Iran give me hope that they will demand and fight for a fair government. The picture above this section reminded me of the coverage I've seen this week about young Iranian women daring to protest (some even wearing nail polish) in public. There was even video of a young woman standing in traffic wearing western clothes. These things may seem trivial, but to these people - a monumental stand. I hope the area can start a tidal wave of change in that region.
Whether we realize it or not, hope is a driving factor in most of our lives. Hope to find a spouse, to raise kids, hope for a God who will help us in need. What I have come to realize about the Iranian protests is that these people have hope for a new life. Mousavi's reforms will greatly increase the freedom for the Iranian people and the citizens and protesters are clinging to this oppurtunity. This is their driving force for living and for some, even worth a sacrifice greater than themselves. This inspires me to keep strong in my beliefs and have hope for a future.
@ryno Totally understand your point, don't be too hard on yourself. You have made some fair points. Beleive me, some people do think they know whats going on in Iran and others do actually know and you can't take that away from them. Others, like myself will go with the underdogs not because they have the solutions to the problems but because they are being disadvantaged. Purely on a sympathy basis and nothing is wrong with that...we all have our reasons. Others might think I don't know anything, why bother?
@aabbenn Absolutely, if you didn't have that vision you would give up under dire circumstances. People hang in because of external factors like their children for example, and that could be classed as a vision. Someone might long to see their unborn grandchild, if you like. To me there's always something out there that gives us hope, it has to be something we can envisioned. And just thinking about is an action. Man's thought is his reality.
I know i'm gonna sound like the bad guy here, but does anyone here really know what the f*** they're talking about when it come to Iran?? I'm not showing support for either of the candidates because I can't say I know ANYTHING about them that didn't come from the TV, and the hysterics of the election that the media has chosen to show non-stop..... You know Bush used to look like the man that stood for america and its people, and I can guess how all of you hate him now, and you certainly have good reasons. So my point is what if Mousavi is a wolf in sheeps clothing, I mean how and the hell do you know any better??? What msn, yahoo, some american or western blog?
Hope, I give my best intentions and regards, however:
the facts, Obama has increased military spending by 4%
It was promised the war would end in the beginning of his term, however that has been conveniently pushed back to 24 months "The federal budget needs to get put under control" well we all know quite well that went out the window, if you dont then you ought to look into it yourself. The list goes on.
I'm just saying I dont actually know just what the heck i'm talking about when it comes to Iran, and I don't think (most) of you do either
the election was won with 62% of the vote, maybe the majority really do want ahmadinejad
... it means no other way to stay healthy, that be defensive ....... ??? This is an old, familiar, perfectly working pattern.
I dream of an Earth which hope will be no needed any more ....
The hope was and still is the inseparable of all unlikely places ............ nothing new.
It is like the antibodies vis-a-vis a virus.
The question is : why we are creating A VIRUS ?
Some will answer: " to improve the immune system ..... "
What a ..... price .... !!!??? .... it means no other way to st
If there wasn't hope, we'd all have killed ourselves a loooooooong time ago. Hope's the best. Love it.
hope is crying together in the middle of the night, not knowing what else to do. it's choosing not to curl into the fetal position and give up breathing. the choice is hope.
Hope is something I contend with everyday. I hope the children I work with can find solace and peace in a home that only provides bruises and emotional hurt. I hope my husband can recover from losing a job he had been at for fifteen years. I hope my marriage can survive the turmoil that my husband feels since he lost his job. So, right now all I have is hope.
well to me Hope is literally the only reason while I'm still alive today...
so I believe it is very important to have a craving for something.
Show Of Solidarity with Iranian Citizens::Silent Demonstration
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2009
Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Location: Tompkins Square Park
Street: 7th St.
City/Town: New York, NY
I go with probabilities...but for most people hope is sometimes the last motivator they have to cling to.
What do I think? Hope comes with vision, for vision to become reality, action must be taken, when action is taken regardless of its scale, hope has started to become realised. Hope for someone may not be fulfilled in their life time. My hope for a better world I know will come to fruition when I'm long dead and gone. My actions to educate my children to be world citizens now will better equip them to eliminate such problems like what is being discussed here.They will be the solution....Hope forever!
@StacieC i agree with you...hope is the fuel that keeps me going. i really don't see how one can live to face tomorrow without hope.
@Money for me hope is more than just what i want...hope is the thing that drives me...for instance, i help lead the youth ministry at my church because i hope that one day all those girls i minister to will come to know their self worth and realise how much they are loved and eventually make a positive change in their communities. i wake up daily and go to work because i hope that i will get a chance to make a difference in someone's life today. hope is not just a want, but a passionate desire.
in my culture names are a huge deal...they supposedly determine the person you will become. my name - tsholofelo - means hope...so i've always had an affinity for that virtue.
@Rasputnik I think you're right about the different strokes! For one, I would interpret your action as hope. Because when I'm feeling hopeless, I can't make myself do anything. I don't mean just praying and hoping for something to happen when I talk about hope (I feel like that is disordered hope), I just mean hope to give me the energy to go on. Although I don't think you can just live on hope, either, as then I would discredit you as "most likely lobotomized." All that to say: maybe you can hopelessly act, but I can't. Maybe I'm just a big wuss.
I find it difficult to continually live in "hope" only. Hope alone is not enough for me. If I am to get what it is that I am hoping for, I need to translate that hope into something else. May be into a "want". I know how to handel "want" but not "hope". If I "want" something, all I need to do is to find out how I can get it, and then, Bam, just go and get it by means of taking action. I can't do that with "hope". May be some of you can explain it to me.
I think hope works differenly for people. I always thought hope was the greatest thing. I read Waiting for Godot in highschool and was told that what kept those two weird guys from leaving, what kept them waiting was hope that they would meet Godot. But hope kept them inactive. Instead of taking action, they just stood around.
So I guess hope can work in different ways. If a parent loses their child and they ONLY hope that they find them, then its obviously not so good. But if hope is the force that makes them active, then it works. As for what's going on in Iran I assume is the latter situation and I think its beautiful. Even if things don't work out, these people didn't just hope, they did something.
Without Hope (or at least Optimism) from the people, there is no future. I have both Hope and Optimism. They are powerful motivators.
Death to tyrants.
Hope? Yes, and it is up to rational people elsewhere to HELP the IRANIANS have something REAL to focus their hope and aspirations!
Hoping for a political solution to the spiritual problems now afflicting Iranians AND the rest of our world is NOT a hopeful reality, NOT real. There IS NO HOPE for a political solution to the diseases of the human spirit now manifest in Teheran and around the world, but there IS HOPE for a spiritual solution to the spiritual problems of materialism, racism & nationalism now so readily apparent in the actions of the military dictatorship running Iran in place of the theocracy controlling it 8 days ago!
But now we're back to those People of Light, whose very BEING is a fearful affront to the mullahcrocy AND Ahmadinejad's thugs, because those 'People of Glory' worship and obey al-Qaim and al-Mahdi, and in so doing CHALLENGE the political leaders' authority, authenticity and raison d'etre.
The demonstrations SHOW CLEARLY the Iranian peoples' hunger for truth, and the People of Glory SHOW CLEARLY, in their willingness to die for their Faith in al-Qaim and al-Mahdi, that the mullah's and imams' days are numbered.
The equality of men & women IS HERE, IS NOW, despite the government's best efforts to retard and ignore it. The oneness of humankind is a scientific reality, despite clergy's best efforts to lift this group or that group above all others.
And the Oneness of God, and the Oneness of God's Holy FAITH will NOT be sullied or destroyed or ended or exiled or pretended out of existence by military thugocracies or brutal dictatorships for very long in THIS Day!
"hope has a way of turning it's face to you just when you least expect it. You walk in a room, you look out a window and something there leaves you breathless. You say to yourself 'it's been awhile since I felt this'. And it feels like it might be hope."
music and lyrics by Sara Groves off of her album 'Tell Me What You Know'
I wish I would have thought of these lyrics. It suits my situation so well. As far as the people in Iran, I do not know...
"Hope" cannot change anything, it is merely an emotion. Only actions can change the world.
When I read the article, I had the opposite reaction; I thought the situation was hopeless. If a fanatical, nationally despised lunatic like Ahmadinejad cannot be unseated even in fair elections (and I use the term "fair" very, very loosely here), then that means the Iranian people have just lost their only real chance at ousting him peacefully. As emotionally stirring as the protests are, I doubt they will come to anything...it's not like this is the first ruthless conservative leader Iran has ever had. Here's hoping he has a sudden massive heart attack before he re-assumes office...
@StacieC Hope's never come through for me, hence my lack of faith in it. I guess it's all about what works for you. I've always put more stock in trying to better my situation myself rather than hope or pray it gets better.
As has been said on these boards before, different strokes for different folks.
sidenote: I think The Secret is basically a book written about hoping.
Religiously we are taught to have hope. I hope to have a few things happen in my life. They havent happened yet. But my day to day demeanor is optimistic and hopeful. So even if these things never happen, I am currently pleased with my stance in life. Because I hope that one day my dreams and wishes will come true in some variation. Even if they dont come true how I expect them to ... they will come true in some sort of reality. I'll understand it all at the end.
@Rasputnik I think you're fairly right. But only if you're talking about specific hopes that CAN be quantified. For instance, I hoped, when I was 7, that I would get a specific book (I'm a nerd). I didn't. So then I hoped I would get it for Christmas. I didn't. But then I hoped I'd get it for my 8th birthday. And I did! There are some times this wouldn't work, usually in the negative-- I hoped my grandma wouldn't die from the cancer that was taking her, but she did anyways. But I can still have hope-- just not about that. I think in this Iran situation, the hope that people need to be really basing their energy on is the hope for change, the hope for a better way, just general hope. Not hope that something specific will happen today, but hope in the future. You can always have room for that, and that is what leads to action (and to sanity, I think!). It can make you be able to face a new day, even if all your specific hopes have been dashed.
Hope is as essential as the preservation of sanity. For if it were no hope all else would fall. Hope keeps us going, hope fights for us, hope speaks with us and hope remains when all else fails. Those protesting in Iran are doing what they believe is right but mostly they are standing up for what is right while utilizing one of the most powerful tools to humankind (HOPE). Let us pray, and mostly keep HOPE ALIVE! Hope breeds into faith and faith allows us to keep going. <3
I am enamored by the Iranian protests and also at the same time, I remain slightly apathetic. I'm half-Iranian. These protests would be wonderful if they were centered around a regime change, but they're not and it's even been backed up by many Iranians who are protesting. (That they don't want a regime change) They just want a new president, because this president is trying to change things. And maybe he will change some things, for 97% of the population, but 3% are still left without a voice and will always be until the Ayatollah is gone. So sometimes I wonder--what does it matter if the president will still be his puppet?
But maybe like it said in this article, these protests will really lead to an entire regime change, and if it does, I think I'll cry out of relief and happiness especially for my father, and thank and praise God. Like this says, I can only hope.
What a great article!
Hope can bring about a great deal of change... if people have the courage to follow through. It's a wonderful first step. "Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." Whatever that love is for, it supports the necessary perseverance.
I hope as well.
I hope that this is not another Tinamen? Square.
But, I am watching amazed, silently hoping and hoping the US stays quiet as well.
nice article.
hope is surely the first step toward a positive change. if it weren't for hope, i may not be here. and sometimes it takes a lonnnnng time after the first glimmer of hope that any measurable results come about, but in my life, hope has led me into action that has saved my ass.
thank you, hope.
Though some battles are not won , those who fought will be remembered. The enemy will think of them in every move to come
Hope is only ever worth anything if it begets change. To me, hope's value is established in retrospect.
I hoped for a racecar for my 7th birthday. That hope was foolish.
DISCUSSION TOOLSET
This is one of the best pieces I have read on the current election debacle in Iran. "There are a lot of things you can life without but hope isn't one of them" - @tapestryofhope.