My better half has called me a pessimist on more than one occasion, and I often respond to such charges with "Blessed are the pessimists, for they shall never be disappointed." However in the chaotic world we're living in today, it often seems like hope is being used as a shield against reality. The pandemic forced us to live in the future, with shortages and loss. Now that we have returned to something vaguely resembling normal, the idea that everything will be as it was before seems to be the popular opinion, ignoring the fact that we live on a planet with finite resources, the continuous extraction of which has allowed us to overpopulate it and achieve a lifestyle that is not sustainable.
Yes, exactly why talk about 'hope' always makes me suspicious. I think it's important to have hope, but not as a way to purposefully blind yourself for the harsher side of reality. Swinging too far to the other, hopeless, side has its own dangers, of course. Not an easy balance to achieve...
Gunnar, your scientific mind waxes philosophical here. Nice!
IMHO hope is an emotion and emotions (which are peptide modulated and epigenetically managed) are a function of the difference between our expectations and actual experiences.
Consciousness of the connection between our anticipations, emotions, and memories, allows us to look before we leap, as we imagine our plans, our participation in them, and anticipate any future joy that may result from the process. Our creative anticipatory imagination is influenced by curiosity (self-consciousness), aesthetics (material consciousness) and ethical sensitivity (higher consciousness).
Happiness results when our expectations match our experiences or when we trust that whatever happens is beneficial either making us stronger or perhaps progressing us towards a higher goal (heavenward).
Yes, expectations (and their proper management) are crucial. I suspect different people have a different happiness threshold. For some it will happen when experience and expectation match, for others perhaps only when experience outdoes expectation, and perhaps for some it might come even when experience doesn't live up to expectation, but is still 'good enough'.
"Everything that is done in this world is done by hope" (Dr. Martin Luther King) :)
“If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.” (Sylvia Plath) ;)
My better half has called me a pessimist on more than one occasion, and I often respond to such charges with "Blessed are the pessimists, for they shall never be disappointed." However in the chaotic world we're living in today, it often seems like hope is being used as a shield against reality. The pandemic forced us to live in the future, with shortages and loss. Now that we have returned to something vaguely resembling normal, the idea that everything will be as it was before seems to be the popular opinion, ignoring the fact that we live on a planet with finite resources, the continuous extraction of which has allowed us to overpopulate it and achieve a lifestyle that is not sustainable.
"hope is being used as a shield against reality"
Yes, exactly why talk about 'hope' always makes me suspicious. I think it's important to have hope, but not as a way to purposefully blind yourself for the harsher side of reality. Swinging too far to the other, hopeless, side has its own dangers, of course. Not an easy balance to achieve...
Gunnar, your scientific mind waxes philosophical here. Nice!
IMHO hope is an emotion and emotions (which are peptide modulated and epigenetically managed) are a function of the difference between our expectations and actual experiences.
Consciousness of the connection between our anticipations, emotions, and memories, allows us to look before we leap, as we imagine our plans, our participation in them, and anticipate any future joy that may result from the process. Our creative anticipatory imagination is influenced by curiosity (self-consciousness), aesthetics (material consciousness) and ethical sensitivity (higher consciousness).
Happiness results when our expectations match our experiences or when we trust that whatever happens is beneficial either making us stronger or perhaps progressing us towards a higher goal (heavenward).
Yes, expectations (and their proper management) are crucial. I suspect different people have a different happiness threshold. For some it will happen when experience and expectation match, for others perhaps only when experience outdoes expectation, and perhaps for some it might come even when experience doesn't live up to expectation, but is still 'good enough'.