A Word

Both society and individuals are sustained by certain values, certain concepts, certain ideas. One is hope. It is difficult to see how a society or individual without hope can long endure. I seem to recall an experiment where two groups of people were told to move bricks (or similar material) from one location to another. One group was told it involved an important purpose. The other group was not told it involved an important purpose. I think the "purpose" group subjects displayed healthy indicators such as being motivated and cheerful whereas the "no purpose" group subjects displayed unhealthy indicators such as depression and alienation. If my memory of this experiment is correct, and if "purposeful living" is related to "hopeful living," then one can say hope is vital to our well being.

Accordingly, I spoke with my kids today about hope. It began as a word game where they had to guess the word I was thinking and they could do so by guessing the letters of the word. Once they guessed the word "hope," we discussed its meaning. I tried to simply explain that hope meant having a positive outlook about the future--that it meant looking forward to what will occur. My hope is for my kids to be hopeful.