Hope?

I've recently been reading an amazing blog about an amazing woman, who is charting her life from becoming homeless and living in her car, and following her journey to rebuilding shattered self confidence to an end that will, hopefully, leave her back in society, living in her own place somewhere she can feel safe and secure, somewhere with curtains and doors that can shut out the great outdoors. http://wanderingscribe.blogspot.com/ is her blog. Well worth a read if you have the time.

That blog, more than most stories of human strenght and courage, has restored something in me that I hadn't realised I had lost. Something that many people in this modern global village seem to have lost. Her writing has given me hope. Now you may ask, Hope? Hope for what? And therein I think is why we have lost our hope, we have so little to hope for, for the majority of us in the first world there are safe guards, insurance both social and personal. We have a safety net and so few of us every really require true hope, the most hope we entertain is the 'hope' that I win the lottery, or 'hope' that I get that promotion, that payrise.

Wanderingscribe's writing touched me deeply, she never accepted her situation, she never gave in and said, "yup, this is it, learn to live with it". She clung to Hope, hope for something better, hope for a way out, hope for a warm cup of tea, hope for social interaction, a normal conversation in a coffee shop with another human being. Her strenght of character, her insistance that she would get herself out of her situation was admirable, but many people who fell off the social radar and faded out of society to join the forgotten people felt the same when they first found themselves 'on the streets'. The difference was 'hope', most people in her situation wait for help to arrive, wait for a way out to present itself. She didn't she took her hope and her courage and used it as a crutch, she leant on it and struggled out of the mire of depression and self pity that destroys so many in our world today.

I've never needed hope, or so I thought, if I needed something, I'd simple save up the cash and buy it, work extra hours or whatever it took. But life was missing something, I was just another member of the rat race, like so many others intending to follow the path of the lemming, travelling through life only to cast yourself into oblivion at the end. Working, sleeping, eating, that was my existence. Like that is the existence of so many of my generation now. But Hope, is like a cool beer after a trek across the desert, Ice Cold in Alex comes to mind. That moment, that cool, blissful cold beer, hope is like that, it fills you and satisfies you like nothing else can.

Wanderingscribe gave me hope, hope that in today's world of Religious fanatacism there is still the ability, the capability for greatness, for courage, for dignity and perserverance in humanity. We see a rise across the world of people of many different religions and creeds commiting disgusting acts in the name of their respective Gods, and now most of you are thinking "Ah, he means Al Queda, Islamic terrorists". I do not just refer to them, but also to the fanatics of other religions, in America we see Christian fanatics condeming books and films that disagree with thier beliefs, ie: attempts to have a childrens book 'Harry Potter' banned from schools because it's central theme's include magic, which is unchristian. These people have abandoned their saviour "The Christ", as he taught Tolerance and Love, yet we see nothing but intolerance and hate from these people. Intolerance of anything that is not of their faith, and hate of anyone who attempts to bring equality for all faiths. Some christians. I had thought the word Christian meant one who follow's christ, it seems today it is being hijacked by totalitarian fanatics. They wish to ram Jesus down your throat, the love is gone, the tolerance is gone. They try to have 'creationism' taught in science classes instead or alongside of Evolution.

And yes, Islamic terrorists have hijacked a peacefull, loving and holy religion in their lust for death and blood. Any Muslims I know are peacefull, friendly, open and welcoming people, yet like so many faiths around the world, the media only report the extremism. "Islamic man gives life to pull Christian neighbour from burning building" just wouldn't make a good headline. "Muslim terrorist burns neighbour alive" is far more 'eyecatching'. I think the worlds media bear a huge burden of guilt for their part in the way society is suffering a loss of hope.

The attempt to force your faith, be it Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Paganism or any of a thousand others, on another person, is an act of hate and an act of violence and destruction. You attempt to destroy that which gives this person hope and joy in life and supplant it with what you believ to be right. That is as violent a crime as surely as if you had torn their heart out and replaced with another. It is an assualt of the worst kind, an act of evil. But I degress, maybe that 'rant' is best kept for another post.

I suppose it is odd to me that in this world rife with hate and destruction and hopelessness, that my hope in humanity, my hope for the future, and my faith in the character and unconquerable strenght of humanity is restored, not by a great leader negotiating peace deals, or by religious figures preaching forgivness, not by the generousity of celebraties nor the actions of volunteer's be it feeding the famine struck or rebuilding New Orleans, but by a lone woman in the outskirts of London, sleeping in a car, writing her thoughts, her hopes and dreams, and catalogueing her struggle to rejoin society.

Wanderingscribe, if ever you read this, please accept my sincere thanks for sharing your thought and words with us. You have lit a small candle, given me back the flame of spirit that gives us our strenght, that allows us to truly see life in all it's beauty and grandeur. I know that was not your intention, but the fact that your helping me and others like me was incidental, in no way lessens the deed.

I truly hope you suceed, and I have an abundance of faith that you will.


Here's to peace, hope and happiness.

Conor