HOPE VERSUS OPTIMISM
In a recent Peanuts cartoon, Lucy is out in her regular position in right field. A batter hits a ball to her, she looks up to catch it, and it instead falls to the ground just behind her. When she returns it to pitcher, Charlie Brown, she says, “Sorry I missed that one, manager . . . I was hoping I’d catch it . . . Hope got in my eyes!” Oh, isn’t that what we sometimes think “hope” really is – a sort of wishful thinking? A Pollyanna spirit? A pie-eyed passel of positive thinking that we gussy up out of our own meager resources? Something we really don’t believe is going to come to pass, like winning the sweepstakes, but we “hope” we will anyway. This is to mistake hope, for optimism, for the propensity to look on the bright side of things, the tenacious clinging to silver linings in dark clouds. It is this kind of “hope” that…
To view this resource, log in or sign up for a subscription plan
