“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
This quotation by tchech civil rights activist Václav Havel sums up quite well what hope means to me. With such an demeanour, I want to act and cooperate for and with other people to strive for a good live for all; speaking up against injustice if needed. Sometimes, this is hard work.
When I thought about it, one episode came to my mind over and over again: a few years ago I was part of a small demonstration against a far-right campaign event. Hundreds applauded a politician who publicly dreamed of executing people who didn’t fit in his image of a “good German”. There were five of us mostly silently holding up a banner taking issue with his positions. This afternoon was not exactly a pleasant one, much as expected.
But at the end, there was an encounter. Leaving the event with her family, a woman made her young son aware of our protest. He reacted in a way probably neither she nor we had expected: very simple, open, positive. It was his reaction that stuck with me.
So my experience with hope goes one step further than what Havel describes. I think, whereever we actually live out of our hopes, we receive something that gives reason for even more hope. And who, if not religious, should be living out of hope?!
Salome, MEP
