By Allan Hamilton, M.D.
Hope is an odd emotion. Almost no aspect of human activity, endeavor or aspiration exists for long without it. It possesses the strange alchemy of serving as the power that drives us toward the light as well as also being the light we seek. In our daily routines and schedules hope fuels our ambitions in scores of minor episodes to take risks and prevail: “I hope I can find a good parking spot”; “I hope I brought the file with me”; “I hope the pace lets up a little.” We hope so much we hardly notice.
Hope lights the way. It gives us the resilience to endure. The US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76 describes hope as the desire to live despite seemingly insurmountable odds. Hope it asserts is the fundamental ingredient of resilience. The manual tells soldiers to think of hope as the ultimate weapon. That’s right! Hope is the ultimate weapon—for good.
Hope unites communities and drives social change. It is the force of collective action and belief that makes a better world a possibility. Hope encourages empathy and compassion and helps us to see the potential in others. Hope may not be tangible but it is always real. Hope is the essential ingredient that can spell a difference between giving up and giving in or pressing on and standing up. Hope is the agent that shapes our goals and aspirations while simultaneously shielding them from despair. Hope is the workhorse of the best of civilization.
With today's science however we better understand the power of hope. With brain imaging, for example, we can look at patients receiving placebo injections rather than real opiate injections. If the patient believes they are receiving an opiate, their brain activity is very similar to someone who is receiving an actual injection. In other words, the patient is actually “treated” by the placebo in quantifiable ways. Placebos remind us how powerfully the mind can manifest what it yearns for. Hope is a unique kind of magic in medicine that we are only beginning to understand.
Hope can be reduced to two simple ingredients: probability and desire. “Hope is a desire for an uncertain event”. Many philosophers and social scientists have pointed out that hope is made by binding two elements together: yearning and uncertainty.
Everyone is permitted to hold on to hope. On a broader scale, hope is the force for good behind movements for change, inspiring collective courage and action. Hope encourages empathy and compassion, a fundamental aspect of the human experience. We would never deny another human being's right to hope. Each of us has a right to unfettered hope.
10/06/24