Hope is the mental faculty without which a knowledge of stark reality would paralyze us. Consider. We know that birth comes with a death sentence to be executed at an indeterminate time somewhere between the next second and 120 years of age. We are born to die. We carry this certain knowledge with us, and yet we are immune to its implications because we have hope. Strip away hope and what remains is fear, despair and denial, which doesn't make things better.
God: Is that the end of the lecture, Professor?
Me: There's lots more in Wikipedia. I just need time to finish reading the article.
God: Reading is good. Also. you could remember what you've learned from experience. When you were a kid, death wasn't on your mind. You just wanted a bike. Your plan was to extort one from your Dad by telling him you were praying for it. You imagined he would approve and lend God a hand. You were born knowing how to get what you wanted from your parents. That was OK when you were a helpless baby, but when you were old enough for a bike, you were old enough to cut the lawn and earn some cash for a bike. Instead you thought you could get one with a show of phony piety.
Me: I remember. I'm not proud of that episode, but I learned. Dad didn't buy the bike until he had enough saved up. Later I followed his example. I paid cash for my first car, forty dollars.
God: I noticed that by then you stopped treating me like your partner in crime. Good for you. You have a say in what happens next, but you have to make it happen. That's where mature hope begins.
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