Hope

The Lorraine Motel where King was assassinated

To have hope concerning the future one must be blessed with compelling images picturing the overcoming of present limitations.  Slim probability of success is concurrent with profound longing.  At the base of hope is defiance in the face of the improbable.  It is born from a sense of deprivation.  Hope is the flat-out denial of overwhelming statistics.  Often we think of hope as being uplifting and moral, but it can be just as well degrading and immoral.  Both James Earl Ray and Martin Luther King, Jr. had hope, and these hopes met in Memphis.

Hope is never fully realized for hope, unlike accomplished fact, is characterized by the visualization of all positives with no negatives.  Hope develops a relationship, a kinship, with those who experience it.  As one would defend a family member, one defends their cherished object of hope.  People often say they are hopeful when in fact they do not experience compelling images or vision.  Thus, hope is often the subject of insincere cant.  We hear, “I hope for peace” when in fact these are mere words.  That is why we hear “peace, peace, but there is no peace.”  Sincere hope, for better or worse, is often quite effective and can have significant impact though frequently with unintended and unexpected results.

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