Chapter II
1. Hope is the most important element of a human life.
2. Sometimes the hope in a human life is so miniscule that it is obscured by a great many things,
3. And sometimes so much so that a person believes that they have no hope,
4. And sometimes the hope is so great that it cannot be shared because none others have the frames of reference to apprehend its possibilities.
5. But most people's hope lies somewhere in between.
6. The human mind is a powerful instrument and the primary goal of its higher functions is to keep the individual alive.
7. It mostly does this by giving the individual, however remote or abstract, something to aspire to, something that it can hope to achieve.
8. In the extreme pessimist, these things are very well disguised, and sometimes even to the pessimist;
9. And what keeps them alive is some nagging feeling in the back of their consciousness that they can't properly define.
10. In the extreme optimist it is displayed for all to see.
11. But no matter who it is, hope is the thing that keeps all of us alive, without exception.
12. Now hope can take a wide range of forms, and even if it is the abstract hope that what remains of life might be better than what comes after, this is still hope;
13. This is a common form to be found in the extreme pessimist who believes they have lost all hope.
14. When hope truly dies, it means that there is no pleasure to be found, that there is no purpose to be found, that existence itself holds no attraction and that non-existence is preferred.
15. If there is one thing in existence that you find interesting or fun then your hope has not died.
16. Someone once wrote a fictional dialogue that has an important message for this book.
17. The context is on the ills of poverty and homelessness:
18. Got a bunch of furniture donated; gotta move this stuff to the new shelter.
19. …What if I told you it doesn't help. What would you do if you found out that none of it matters. That it's all controlled by forces more powerful and uncaring than we can conceive.
20. And they will never let it get better down here. What would you do?
21. I'd get this truck packed before the new stuff gets here!
22. If we wish to live and not just exist, it can be no other way.
23. A person's opinion on anything, no matter how well it is considered, does not represent the fact of the entire picture.
24. What is insurmountable for some is not so for others, and all of us have different qualities, perceptions and understandings.
25. Even if the majority believe a thing to be true, it doesn't make it true,
26. Indeed, in the light of how many commonly held opinions fall by the wayside,
27. There is probably some wisdom in doubting something that is opaque when almost everybody believes it to be true.