ENGThe Audacity of Hope
Of course, I’m stealing
this title from Barack Obama’s biographical book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on
Reclaiming the American Dream. Certainly, he is one of those few politicians
worth stealing from. Yet I’m stealing the title not because he is a
conspicuously laudable leader, but because it neatly sums up what I have in my
mind in writing these lines: the audacity to hope even when there is little to
nothing to hope for.
I confess that it has
been a long while since I read it last; but I vividly remember that it was more
about Obama’s unwavering American nationalism and less about ‘how’ and ‘why’ HOPE
is an ineffably driving force, a sustaining power even for the most vulnerable.
Of America and its people, for instance, Obama has this to say in the prologue
of his Audacity of Hope:
Not
only did my encounters with voters confirm the fundamental decency of the
American people, they also reminded me that at the core of the American
experience are a set of ideals that continue to stir our collective conscience;
a common set of values that bind us together despite our differences; a running
thread of hope that makes our improbable experiment in democracy work. These
values and ideals find expression not just in the marble slabs of monuments or
in the recitation of history books. They remain alive in the hearts and minds
of most Americans—and can inspire us to pride, duty, and sacrifice.
Earlier I said that the
tittle neatly summarizes what I have in mind yet helplessly fail to put into
words. If I were a mullah, I would have described it as the unfailing capacity
to hold and steadfastly endure even the mounting challenges of ineffable
proportion, for they are constant, intermittent tests to be rewarded someday in
some way or another. But I’m not a mullah; and even that does not accurately describe
the audacity of hoping I’m concerned with.
The closest depiction I can
think of is that which calls for a willful, deliberate determination in
acknowledging one’s personal responsibility in shaping one’s life or even “writing
one’s destiny”. I can surely hear you growling with defiance and disbelief. But,
before you crucify me on the altar of spite, hear out what I have to say: Life is
generally uncaring and unloving; it can even be brutal as it can be quite intimidating;
it is usually full of daunting challenges as it often encompasses seemingly insuperable
hurdles.
Indeed, this is where
that unwavering power of the audacity of hoping is most needed. When dealing
with an uncooperative wind, for instance, only strength and tact can be called
upon. When swimming counter-current, energy and swimming agility are most
needed to overcome the tidal might; and when threatened, a furious Cape buffalo,
unlike a scared turtle, does not hide inward nor does it give in before its
last breath. So too, the audacity of hoping amidst challenges is the ability,
the conscious and deliberate willingness not to succumb to despair and cynicism.