The Disappointment of Hope
Hope breaks out; disappointment follows in its wake. This should not be dismissed as cynicism; it is just the way things are. We invest great emotional and intellectual energy in dreaming our dreams of the future, enjoy the sweet thrill of triumph for a moment or two, before resuming our lives as before, disappointed that the promise was not realised. “The test of a first-rate intelligence,” writes F. Scott Fitzgerald, “is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still be able to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” How are we to function in these circumstances? Read more
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