hope
aiee! I do not like my choice. first let's go back and consider "appreciate". yep, Google says "recognize the full worth of" and "understand fully, recognize the full implications of". Google does not say "to admire" or "to fawn over". good, because hope has an ambiguous place for me. remember the story of Pandora's box? the gods gave her a box and told her she must never ever open it. right. it's like when your mother tells you not to think of elephants. what is the one thing you can't do while you "don't think of elephants"? as the gods knew she would, Pandora opened the box. and all the things the gods wanted a patsy for, all the things that God wanted to blame on the Devil, flew out of the box. flies did, mosquitoes, gnats, chiggers did, hangovers, mental imbalances did, polio, black plague, cancer, tuberculosis, gangrene, STDs did, bed sores, bed bugs, and on and on and on. and Pandora quick slammed the box shut, but it was too late. well, it was almost too late. from inside the newly re-closed box a sweet voice pled, "wait! let me out! let me out!" the voice was so enticing that Pandora tried to peek into the box, but as soon as she opened the box at all, hope slithered out and flowed into the world. leaving us to wonder whether hope is the last and worst of the afflictions the gods granted man, or the alleviator they sent to make up for all the other afflictions they devised for man. hope keeps us drinking from the same well than made us sick. hope declares war. hope re-elects politicians. hope keeps us living in pain while the medicine man experiments toward a cure. hope chases a puppy into traffic. hope remarries. hope buys again from the same corporation. hope joins another march. on the other hand, hope gets women the right to vote. hope gets a patient out of a mental institution. hope sometimes wins the battle against alcoholism. hope keeps an artist learning his or her craft. hope sends us back into battle. hope gets college degrees. hope asks for a raise, or gets a different job. if anything ever sticks it to the man, hope will have driven the bayonet. hope is a gift of perfume and sweetness and softness, but a gift with razor-sharp edges.
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