Hope

During my active time as a musician I was often faced with the problem of not being able to make an instant reliable assessment/judgement about the quality and the creative value of a recording and the included musical ideas. I had to wait a few days before listening to the recordings again to properly rate them. Quit often it turned out that what I had thought to be a great idea and an inspirational moment was just another mediocre variation of the old worn-out stuff that I had ruminated about endlessly already for much too long.

I'm facing the same problem with my blog texts. Here is an example:

When "the audacity of hope" morphed into "the illusion of hope", were we then still left with a glimmer of hope, comforted by the solace of hope and able to enjoy the gift of hope, or was the "power of hope" finally broken?

Were we still visiting the cities of hope and going to the places of hope to rest at the cornerstones of hope? Were we still on a mission of hope, on a journey of hope, walking the walk of hope, guided by the beacon of hope and the star of hope? Were we still listening to the "voices of hope" and looking out for traces of hope and signs of hope? 

Will the hopeless ever be hopeful again when their hopes were dashed so many times before? Can we keep our hope alive?

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Friends asked me, why I don't promote my blog.

I would like and hope to have a few more readers, but in this limited life and in the limited time that I have I am only able to either write posts or promote my blog. I cannot do both. If I would only promote my blog and spend my time looking for readers and subscribers, people would visit this site and would find nothing there. It is logical that I have to opt for writing posts, a solution which at least gives me with the hope, that some web surfers accidentally will reach this page and read my elaborations.

I could of course make a compromise and write a little bit plus promote a little bit, but this would satisfy nobody, because the posts would be even more mediocre and poorly written than they are now, and the readers would be disappointed and would blame me for wasting their time by luring them to this page.

I don't want to waste anybodies time, I also don't want to waste my own time. I have so many other things to do, like: playing music, being with my wife, working in the garden, walking with the cats in the forest. I would not miss writing, I would not be bored.

I write when I feel that I have something to tell. Before I write anything, I first try to filter, sort, and process the zillions of bits and pieces of information, that constantly pour down on me, and I only start writing when I am able to make out some coherent patterns that lead to a solid understanding of an issue and its underlying systemic structures.

I need my time for writing, the texts come not easy. My fingers are pretty fast and I'm perfect in touch typing, after all, I was working as a journalist. This was in German though, English is not my native tongue and I'm not at all talented in languages. My vocabulary is tiny, my spelling and my grammar are terrible, I have to fight my way from paragraph to paragraph searching for the proper terms and phrases.

A rudimentary and superficial, yet nonetheless surprisingly useful insight into neurology is the tool that helps me to put this blog texts together and make them somehow understandable for the reader. Writing text is always an exciting expedition into my brain and I made many stunning and fascinating discoveries on this exploratory journeys.

Most texts are consequently in addition to the included information an invitation, an incitement to readers for undertaking similar expeditions into their own brains and make similar intriguing and spellbinding discoveries there.

As I told before, I have to fight for the right terms and phrases. Sometimes it is necessary to look at a special word more carefully and to study, analyze, and examine the meaning, possible usages, applications and relations in phrases and sentences. I avoided the term "semantics" at this point of the text because semantics itself is such a complex word with various meanings and far reaching implications that I would have to write a lengthy and elaborate tractate about linguistics to acceptably and correctly engage it.

As I went to bed yesterday, just before falling asleep the word "hope" came to my mind and I decided to have a closer look and try to find out what "hope" really means. My interest in the term "hope" was probably stimulated by a piece of Rebecca Solnit from two weeks ago with the title "Doom Is Not Inevitable: Hope Is Out There, We Just Have to Work For It." The article was not as outstanding as her writings normally are but it projected hope and was nice to read. Rebecca Solnit is the author of the much acclaimed book "Hope in the Dark," she has for sure some experience in propagating hope.

What is Hope?

Like its close relative Love, and together with the associated synonyms and translations, Hope is one of the most misused, abused, desecrated, depraved, beaten up and corrupted words in human language. Evoking Hope has won elections and the word is successfully used in advertising as well as in corporate and government propaganda. The term Hope is also misused for creating brand loyalty, constructing a corporate identity, for marketing, for creating hypes and hysterias. Together with teasers, rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas, Hope is also successful used for crowd control.

Equipped with life experience and common sense it is fortunately not too difficult to expose and denounce the false prophets of Hope and to make out the real teachers and prophets among the hordes of fakers, charlatans, and impostors. This is nevertheless a tedious task, because the mass media corporations are drowning us in piles of useless and misleading information, hoping that one day, overwhelmed and exhausted by the information deluge, we will capitulate, surrender, concede, and swallow everything what we are force-fed via print, cable or air waves.

We all watched with disgust and in dismay how "the audacity of hope" became "the illusion of hope". This was (and still is) a shameful and disgusting spectacle, a painful disappointment, and a sobering experience. It is only natural that in the wake of this and similar experiences we have become numb to the hollow catch phrases of politicians who use Hope as a common ingredient in their speeches in the same way a chef uses salt, basil, ginger, jasmine, lavender, mint, and other culinary herbs and spices to make his cuisine more tasty.

We are numbed by the cynical and inflationary use of the word Hope and nevertheless it still has an impact, it still arouses positive feelings, it still warms our heart and calms our mind.

Definition by example:

Hope is, when my cats in the morning gather in the kitchen, look at the food cups and wait, that I open a can.

Hope is, when one of my cats at 3 AM scratches at the bedroom door for minutes, till I finally go up and let her in.

Hope is, when my dear little friend Wendy, who is a wonderful and lovely cat and the nearest resemblance of any living creature to a teddy bear, approaches one of her fellow cats and tries to make friends despite the fact, that she was rebuffed so many times before. Cats are normally solitary creatures, they are loners (just like me) and my poor Wendy with her atypical social character has a hard time to find real close cat friends, though she is accepted and well liked by the other members of my cat family.

Hope is, when the hares cuddle together in their hideout under the bushes in a bitter cold and chilling winter night, waiting for the spring.

Hope is, when the nestling in spring staggers into a dangerous and cruel world.

Hope is, when the tadpoles try to escape the ferocious dragonfly nymphs in my garden pond.

Hope is, when the birds start singing in the morning, waiting for a mate to hear their calls.

Hope is, when an ugly and penniless men thinks he can win the heart of a beautiful woman.

Hope is, when a single mother works in two or three jobs to earn enough money to pay the rent and some food, wishing, that her child will be doing fine even without her love and care.

Hope is, when I write about social injustice and inequality and about the general foolishness and indifference of humans, assuming, that my denunciations and blistering condemnations will be heard and will change someones mind.

Hope is, when humans disperse more and more synthetic substances into the ecosphere, taking for granted, that plant and animal life will not be negatively affected by these strange agents.

Hope is, when we dream of sitting on a quiet little creek, watching the crystal clear water sparkling and the lizard sitting on a stone.

Hope is, when I dream that oil one day will run out and all that terrible noise from the machines will stop.

Hope is, when peace protesters chain themselves to the White House fence.

Hope is, when protesters in Nabi Saleh, in Hebron, in Bilin go on undeterred despite facing teargas, rubber bullets, beatings, and detentions by the IDF.

Hope is, when the prisoner indefinitely detained by the USA at Baghram Air Base and Guantanamo or by Israel at Ketziot, Megiddo, Telmond, and Al Naqab Desert prison waits to be released or at least face trial one day.

Hope is, when the wrongfully convicted prisoner on death row appeals for a stay of execution and for a retrial.

Hope is, when the Egyptians and Syrians and Bahrainis continue with their protests.

Hope is, when the illegal immigrant is collapsing in the middle of the desert and crawls forward meter by meter.

Hope is, when the miner, trapped in a collapsed shaft, holds on in darkness and waits for the rescue crews to pull him out before the oxygen is used up.

Hope is, when the passenger in a capsizing ship tries to reach the upper deck while the water is gushing in.

Hope is, when the cancer patient waits for the metastatic tumors to be reduced by a new experimental drug.

Hope is, when the african mother carries her dying child to the next hospital many miles away.

Hope is, when we assume, that not even one of the estimated 22,000 existing nuclear bombs will ever be detonated and Hiroshima and Nagasaki will remain the only cities ever obliterated in a nuclear firestorm.

Definition by meaning (semantics):

Hope is a feeling, a state of mind, a mood. Hope is the wish for a positive outcome. Hope is the wish that circumstances in the future will be better. Hope is not prediction or anticipation or expectation (though this is often stated in popular definitions). Hope is not necessarily based on optimism, pessimists can be hopeful too. Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, it is rather the certainty that it makes sense to continue with ones effort.

A religious person will associate hope with praying and the belief in god and an afterlife.

Hope is associated with the words: belief, faith, confidence.

Hope is associated with the words: longing, desiring, dreaming.

Hope is associated with the words: peace, happiness, calmness.

Hope is most closely related with the word Love.

Antonyms: despair, hopelessness, depression, desperation, forlornness, gloom, anguish, distress.

A few translations: l'espoir, esperanza, hoffnung, remeny, lootus.

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What hope means

Hope is the dream of a better tomorrow

Hope is a shelter from trouble and sorrow

Hope is the gentle breeze on a hot day

Hope is the light that keeps darkness away

Hope is the wish that our minds will be freed

Hope is the knowledge that love will succeed 

Hope is a wonderful, special sensation

Hope is peace, love, grace, and liberation

Hope is the memory which never dies

Hope is the light and the tears in your eyes

Hope is the dream that we will be together

Hope is as light as a little birds feather

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Definition by scientific explanation:

The word Hope is a memory pattern in our cerebral cortex which consists of various connections/links to other memory patters and other locations of the brain. One connection leads to a memory pattern in the auditory cortex which is the coding of the sound bite "hope". A second connection leads to the visual cortex in the back of our head.

The visual representation of HOPE/Hope/hope consists of the four letters H O P E. These letters have all their separate representation in the visual cortex of the brain and can be recognized one by one and combined into a word by the central executive (= working memory = consciousness) in the frontal cortex. As humans see the word Hope more and more often during their childhood, the various visual appearances will get their own closely associated patterns in the visual cortex and the central executive can be bypassed and is only needed, when the writing is uncommon, blurred, sloppy and not recognizable at a first glance.

The probably strongest connection leads from the main memory pattern to the amygdala deep inside the medial temporal lobes. The amygdala is a part of the brain which organizes the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events. From here many neurotransmitters, muscle contractions and relaxations, the sympathetic nervous system and via hypothalamus metabolic processes and activities of the autonomic nervous system are influenced.

One connection leads to the movement/motor/muscle memory area, which is not consciously accessible (at least not without systematic mental training). Though we are normally not aware of our movement memory, this area of our brain is nevertheless of huge importance. Humans are movement animals, every aspect of our life is connected to gesture/motion/movement. Hope is seemingly related to walking, moving on. This is the big difference between Hope and its close relative Love. Love is associated with motor memory patterns like embracing/hugging, gently touching, caressing, fondling. We Love with our hands, we Hope with our feet.

There are many additional connections of the main memory pattern to other memory patterns in the cerebral cortex which can be either episodic memories (experiences in our life that we associate with the term hope), other words (mainly the ones that I mentioned in "definition by meaning"), or patterns representing actions/reaction.

One crucial connection leads to the central executive, also called working memory, which is the basis of our consciousness. The working memory is a group of highly interconnected brain areas with nearly "random access", consisting of a map of all memory patterns. Hope has its representation here and that allows us to consciously consider/contemplate the notion of Hope and use it in logical conclusions and creative ideas.

All neural connections are two way, which means that any part of the neural network can activate any other part. The amygdala for instance can send signals back to the memory patterns in the cerebral cortex or the visual cortex and the visual cortex can send signals to the eye and activate cells in the retina. When images appear in our mind, they will often be shady and grey, sometimes with a beige or yellow hue. These images come from the retina, stimulated by signals from the virtual cortex and reported back. Images in our mind that are colorful come directly from codes in memory patterns of the virtual cortex.

When we walk, the concerned movement/motor/muscle memory pattern will send signals back to the memory pattern in the cerebral cortex which represents Hope, and from there the amygdala and all other connected parts of the brain will be informed. Walking can be very calming and uplifting!

One has to keep in mind, that the amygdala and the central executive and many other parts exist in the left as well as in the right hemisphere of the brain and that all mentioned memory patterns and brain regions are not only connected to the main pattern which represents Hope but also connected with each other, though these connections may be less strong. The resonating of the visual pattern for instance will be reported not only to the main pattern in the cerebral cortex but also directly to the amygdala and therefore it can happen that our body reacts to a visual input without us being consciously aware of it (subliminal messages).

When through a sensory input or through a chain of free flowing associations the main memory pattern for Hope becomes activated, it will send signals to the amygdalas and the body will experience certain changes like: increasing or balancing of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and GABA, muscle relaxation, and calming of the whole nervous system.

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As I wrote before, Hope is not necessarily based on optimism, pessimists can be hopeful too -- I know that, I am one of these individuals.

When I feel hope, I feel easy, I feel well and I am calm, composed, and relaxed. My pulse and breathing is slow and constant. Feeling hope is not much different from feeling love, and it is not much different from meditating. When I feel hope I am feeling my spine, my navel, my whole body. The continuous associations in my brain slowly fizzle out and fade away and it becomes perfectly quiet inside my head.

I would be a fool not to be hopeful, I would miss out on this most wonderful experience!

I'm walking again in the forest, accompanied by my cats. Do they realize, how much I enjoy their company?

I am just watching my breath, I am listening to the whispering of the leaves.

Hope is magic!