According to Merriam-Webster, hope is defined, "to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true."  It's really a vague word and incredibly hard to specifically define.  I prefer to define the word a little differently than Merriam-Webster.  Is that allowed?

That was a rhetorical question.  I was only pretending to care about Merriam-Webster's feelings.  Sorry Merriam-Webster, but my definition of "hope" is having a positive outlook on one's future life events.  That may be an even vaguer definition than that offered by Merriam-Webster, but it seems more in line with what I know about how hope works in the real world.

You see, to me, hope is not only an event-specific noun (like Merriam-Webster presents it), but also a way-of-life that encompasses a person's entire being.  From my [limited] experience with the world, it seems that people are hopeful about life in general, in addition to being hopeful about specific events or occurrences. It seems that hope is both a state and trait phenomenon (got all sciency and psychological--you still there?).  Turns out the research supports this theory (Check out more here).

So, I believe that at least in part, being a hopeful person is a choice.  We can either decide to be hopeful (and therefore positive) about that which we're dealt in life, or we can choose to be unhopeful (which is not actually a word; and therefore pessimistic) about that which we're dealt.  While I understand that sometimes there are brain chemicals at play that make us physiologically depressed, and prevent us from being able to make a choice about whether or not we'll be hopeful, when there are no nuisancing chemicals I just don't get why anyone would choose to be unhopeful.  It seems to me that choosing to be hopeful comes with perks like being happier, nicer to other people, and better citizens of this great big world whereas choosing to be unhopeful comes with only one thing.  A great big goose egg.

The one scary thing about hope is that it leaves us open to pain.  When we are hopeful that things will work out to our benefit and they don't, it can be demoralizing and make us feel really let down by the world. It can also leave us a bit embarrassed if we've  led people to expect that things will work to our benefit and they don't.  Like we've failed someone, somehow.

The great, and kind of ironic, thing about hope is that it's self-fixing.  When hope leaves us hopeless, and we're hopeful people, we feel less hopeless in hopeless situations (Huh?).  Hopeful people recover from failures better because they can see the possibility of a better future.  Pretty cool.

So, I ask again, why wouldn't someone choose to be hopeful?  Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Keep on thinking,

Josie