The Eternal quest for Hope!

Posted on October 8, 2013 Updated on October 8, 2013

This is directly aimed and dedicated to everyone, and especially one person in particular, who, by a misplaced sense of trust, have lost their will and faith on many of the beautiful things that life throws at us. If you feel a little knot in your heart as you read these lines, you know it’s you 🙂

“Fear can keep you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”

One of the most pristine and beautiful lines to have ever been said from “The Shawshank Redemption”. Cut down to the chase, the story distinctly distinguishes the life of its protagonist ( Tim Robbins ) with the sorrowful prison librarian and what’s the factor that demarcates the lives of these 2 people? Hope. A falsely convicted person doesn’t lose faith in his life and pulls off something incredible to show that a little hope can always work wonders. The librarian, on the other hand has spent nearly his entire life within the four walls of the prison and lacks the courage or faith to actually lead an existential life in the outside world and ultimately decides to end his life. The story doesn’t end there! There’s a second protagonist ( Morgan Freeman ) , who leads a life almost similar to the librarian and having spent almost 36 years in jail, he almost loses faith of any life in the outside world, until his faith in life is restored by sheer hope. His last few lines from the movie..

“I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”

Losing hope grows like a weed in our brains and is impossible to get rid of once we start harbouring them. The worst part is, we will be conditioned to live in that mental prison forever if we lack the courage to take a leap of faith and move on with our lives. If something good happens to us, we never question “Why is something good happening to me?” It gives us a morale boost and elevates our faith in life. But somehow, we always live in denial whenever something goes awry in our lives. The first question we ask is “Why me?”. There’s no roadmap defined for life. We learn to take things in our stride and move on with it, be it pleasant or unpleasant. And the only thing that drives our very existence is that sparkling little ray of hope that emanates from your mind’s window, provided you keep your mind open to radiate and bask in its glory!

As the saying goes, “At the end of it all, we never regret the things that we did, We just regret the things that we don’t do”

Stealing one more line from the movie.. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this message finds you, and finds you well – Your best friend, always :-)”