Over the past week my family and I have had the opportunity to revisit a few movies set in the time of the Great Depression. “Sea Biscuit,” “The Natural,” and “Cinderella Man” are at their heart the classic story of the little guy overcoming great obstacles to capture the hearts and minds of the people. These types of stories used to be “stock and trade” in an industry which often provides more gore, murder, and horror these days.
I bring this up for the simple truth that each of these stories expresses within their genre: Hope.
As Bob Dylan is renowned for saying, “…These times they are a changing…” The societal upheaval we are all experiencing is affecting each of us deep down inside with a sense of helplessness. Loss of jobs and livelihoods, loss of community and home, loss of basic freedoms of expression are draining the life force out of everyone. Doom and gloom scenarios along with end-time apocalyptic theories are becoming the normal conversations for people who have become too focused on the mayhem thrust into our psyche by a manipulative media. Even within each of these movies the “manipulative media trope” is highlighted as part and parcel of the adversarial conglomerate.
Where is your hope for the helplessness swirling about you? This may be found in a deeper spiritual commitment for some, while others find it committing themselves to the betterment of those less fortunate around them. Some find it in stopping the propaganda of despair and re-calibrating their soul through creative arts. Some sing, some dance, some paint, some work in a garden, prune a rose bush or rake fallen leaves. Some read, while others journal their feelings and experiences. Others are led to tear down and rebuild. There are those who cook or bake. Whatever the expression, the goal is simply hope.
Hope is the ability to control and dictate our outcome against seemingly overwhelming obstacles which seem to tear us down. Even if we can’t seem to accomplish it ourselves, being inspired by the actions of another in their quest for hope can raise us up into a different perspective.
Doom and gloom are easy to find and focus upon. Too easy it seems. Difficult is the search for hope, the diamond in the rough, the pearl of great price. Our focus is so often on the past or the future that we hardly give thought to the present and the hope which surrounds us like a multitude of bubbles in a glass of sparkling water, here one moment and then gone the next only to be replaced by another seemingly out of nowhere.
This is important to retain. Hope does not vanish. It reappears over and over again, bubbling up from within us and around us. Its buoyancy elevates the conscious environment about it. Yes, hope is infectious, and no mask can disguise it or keep it contained. This the reason that the purveyors of disaster reporting don’t like it – hope is unpredictable.
So, in these times of duress, bring up a movie where the underdog overcomes. Marinate in the drama as it unfolds and allow its effervescent exhilaration of hope activate your own optimism in the possibilities all about you. Allow yourself to become hope-filled as a counter to your help-lessness. Your story is not complete until you decide it is.
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