Hope

Hope

On my desk lay the file of Michael Headstone, a new recruit that had recently joined our magazine empire. I quickly read his engagement summary. Recruited from Cambridge, Honors in English literature, 24 years old, single, first job, born in Taunton. I picked up the intercom and asked my assistant, Margaret, to ask Headstone to come and see me. Ten minutes later he sat before me. He was a tall young man with blue eyes, a generous mouth and freckles on his face. His long ginger hair was swept back from his forehead and tied in a ponytail.

”Michael I have an assignment for you, no doubt, you are already bored with your introductory work in the mail room but it’s a necessary part of our trade. The assignment is writing an essay on what a cross section of our society means and defines as hope. Interesting…. n’est pas! Here is the dictionary definition of hope. A feeling of expectations and desire for a particular thing to happen. I give you a quotation that moved me. It might inspire you to write something interesting. Aristotle:. Hope is a waking dream. Today is Monday, three weeks from now I want to see your essay on my desk. You can have a travel allowance but for British isles only, any further afield use Whatsapp.

“Thank you” sir.

Michael sat at his desk in deep thought. What’s the most appealing to a reader when we discuss hope? Surely it is recording talks with people that are striving to connect with that motivating and powerful word hope. Why don’t I concentrated on trying to interview people that are submerged by pressures of despair and anxiety?

Refugees

They say there are 110 million people in the world displaced with 36.4 million refugees. A frightening and unacceptable statistic.

I had known a girl friend from Oxford that had joined the UNHCR camp in Syria for six months. I immediately sent her a quick message that I was working for a London magazine group interested in printing an article on a refugee’s camp. Would it be possible to set up a Whatapp interview with a family there. If she could find somebody in a family that could speak a little English it would be greatly appreciated. Within forty eight hours I had a reply. Delighted, the more the world knows about their plight the better. Tomorrow 12 0, clock London time.

The next day over WhatsApp I met Jamal and his wife Ada. They had lived in the camp for ten years. In halting English they explained that conditions were not good, very bad. They were living under a tent, they lacked food, water, sanitary facilities, and were in constant danger of being subjected to various diseases through overcrowding. We are lost, forgotten about, without any hope of leaving this camp. The world should know they are thousands like us. With the little help from people like your friend Emma life would be unbearable. Emma then took me for a short visit down a few lanes boarded by thousands of tents with children running all over the place. In doing so the connection faded, all I could hear was somebody crying.

War

I phoned a retired British diplomat that had been for a short period of time a professor at Cambridge. I told him I was trying to understand who in his opinion suffers most in war and was near to abandoning that precious feeling of hope. He told me in modern warfare it was always the civilian people who suffered most, they lose their loved ones, their homes, their dignity and are left wandering barren lands or refugee camps in despair and without very little hope of recovering their previous lives. After them he told me he would rank the young soldiers that signed up without fully understanding the reasons. Then probably the diplomats that play worded tennis with the hope of trying to find a solution. Finally, mankind that is caught in the eternal conflict of not being able to live in peace.

Immigration

I went to a rundown hotel in the south of London and found Abdel-Hakial. He was lodged in a tiny room with four other young men. They had all been there over two months patiently waiting the processing procedure to obtain a visa. Abdel as a young man, twenty -six years old. Well built, with a broad chest and muscular arms. Told me it took him three months to travel from Kabul, Afghanistan encountering many adventures on the way. He had come to find work in England and earn enough money to send a portion back to his family. His prayers and hopes were to be granted a visa.

Catastrophe flooding

Over the telephone I spoke with Monsieur and Madame Dupont in the Pas -de Calais; they were temporarily housed in a town’s gym with a number of other people. Their house was under two meters of water and everything was destroyed. Their lives had just been taken away from them, their hopes for a peaceful retirement shattered. Many unknown factors disturbed their thoughts and sleep. Did they have sufficient insurance, how long would they be lodged in the gym, would it be considered a natural catastrophe? Their only son lived in America with three young children. He could not come to help and comfort them. Their hopes for a tranquil and peaceful life seemed far in the distance.

Parents

I called my younger sister who was five months pregnant. I asked her how she felt. Oh! Mike, I feel so anxious. What if the child is born deformed, like Gregory. What would I do.? It is now too late to dispose of it. I went to the doctor last week and everything appeared to be all right but for some reason the ultrasound image was blurred. The doctor tried to assure me all is fine. But somewhere deep inside me I have a feeling that distresses me as I was not convinced. So I am sitting here with a bag of nerves, crossing my fingers, hoping everything will turn out right.

Marriage

Those sacred vows, witnessed by your invited guests “I do.” Said with tenderness and love but after calling a few of my friends these utterances cover up a tiny grain of doubt which is deeply buried under the ceremony of the day. The dinner speakers from various guests all had that underlying refrain of wishing the couple s a long life of hope and happiness.

Prison

I called the director of a major prison. My question to him was. How do prisons cope with years of confinement in prison, sometimes in solitary confinement? He told me it was an interesting question and had often been debated at the prisons administration's executive level. The outcome of these discussions have resulted in a few ideas being executed to levitate the boredom of prison life. Work gangs, carpentry sowing, pottery and other manual workshops. The prison library and prison Chapel also play their part But everybody agrees that for a very large majority of prisoners their thoughts are concentrated on the hope of pardon and freedom.

Farmer

I went to see a local farmer I knew called, Farmer Evans. He represented to a tee one's vision of a personage of the land. He had a strong stout figure, long muscular arms with a weather beaten face from working the land, and attending to his livestock. When he shook my hand I thought they were being slowly crushed in a vice. He laughed and said. “You city lads.” His laughter lit up his visage and I saw with certain amusement he had dimples, also a nasty scar on his large nose. I asked him what was the meaning of hope for him? He told me that life on the land had many rewards, watching the crops grow in the spring, caring for the livestock , tending and helping them bear young ones. There are many other pleasant and unpleasant demands of a farm. For instance enjoying the long summer nights harvesting. But we are not masters of our fate, that is in the hands of the weather patterns. Not always kind. You will often find us looking at the sky and hoping.

Teaching

I called on my old primary teacher, now retired. I thought she would have an interesting point of view on the meaning of hope. When I posed the question she answered as follows. Before I give you my definition of hope let me tell you what my thoughts are about teaching. When we stand before our classes whether they be the young or teenagers we have a great responsibility to nurture and inspire our pupils to learn and develop their intellect and imagination. This is what differentiate us humans from our collective inheritance from the animal kingdom. When I saw the children’s faces each morning, some full of attention, some occupied with other thoughts in their mind. I realize it is my responsibility to give each and every child the possibility to dream, imagine and have hope for their future.

Health

I arranged a meeting with a director of one of London's largest hospitals. As I entered his office I was struck by the number of files on his desk. I could barely see my contact sitting behind a mountain of files. He told me to sit down and said he had only a limited amount of time as he had a very busy morning, in fact I always seem to have busy mornings. He was an elderly, small man, bald with a pair of large thick glasses that dominated a kind looking face. I thanked him for his precious time and quickly told him my magazine was writing an article about hope. To which he replied. “A very interesting subject. Before I give you my definition of hope let me describe the background of the hospital we live in. People come here to seek help because they are suffering from some illness or a physical accident that needs immediate and serious medical attention. In general they come with their loved ones burdened by worries and anxieties. The staff, of whom I am deeply proud, give them an overall medical view of the situation and comfort. It is at this point generally their anxious faces change and the light of hope surfaces. This hospital would not exist without that ray of hope.

Faith

My last port of call was to my local priest. A man I greatly admired. He had a face that seemed to radiate the word of God, dark eyes that seemed capable of looking into your soul; dishevel hair regardless of the wind that swept across a handsome, kind ,visage. A man enthusiastic and full of energy and wisdom. He was well loved in our parish. When I asked him about hope. He turned the question on me and asked does life exist without hope? He then quoted Tom Bodett;: They say a person needs just three things to be happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. He added, my son all is found in the teaching of Christ.

Before I close my essay I have one last thought. At the end of each year most countries in the world indulge in a great show of good wishes and hopes for the coming year with magnificent firework displays. It is a heart-warming moment of rejoicing and the coming together of our human race. Why on the 2nd of January in my dreams I see so many, so many people crying and I still hear the guns and shouts for help?

A month later I was on my next assignment.