Hope or Courage?

In today’s post, Hope, Rummuser shares a quote his cousin Shakar sent him:

Hope in it’s deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy when things are going well, or the willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather a determination to struggle for something to succeed.

Hope is definitely NOT the same as optimism. It’s not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

The English definition of hope has more of an element of expectation in it.

hope

noun: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Shakar’s definition is closer to my

Play your part well and let go of the results.

Sometimes you hope for the best, but sometimes you do it in defiance, simply sticking up for your values against all odds. The word I would use is courage.


 

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4 Responses to Hope or Courage?

  1. nick says:

    I agree with that definition of hope – a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Courage is something quite different, it is doing something despite knowing that you could be seriously injured or killed, or that you’ll be greeted by universal loathing or ridicule, or that what you’re doing could end in total failure but you’re going to try it anyway.

    • Jean says:

      I’ve never had to have physical courage but I do think there’s something to e.e. cummings, especially when we’re young.

      To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.

  2. tammy j says:

    “Play your part well and let go of the results.”
    living up to this is the thing. I aspire to it but fall short.
    especially being able to ‘let go of the results.’
    as to courage… facing nature right now is the proof of it for me.
    the courage it must take to stand at the inferno and try to make a difference.
    I am always in awe of that kind of courage.

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