Monday, April 14, 2008
"Good try, but I think not."
There comes a time to realize that something you want to happen just isn't going to, and you can choose to cling to a hope that won't be realized or move on. False hope is like a credit card for your heart - you get gratification today but sooner or later the bill comes due. And to pay off the balance owed you first need to stop using the card. Even that's not easy, because you grow accustomed to having it available. But as with many things, the hard choice is also the right choice. Sometimes, you just have to let go. The master of cliches would say "don't cry over spilt milk." The economist would say "don't chase sunk costs." I settled with an old favorite: "Oh well."
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2 comments:
Any thoughts on how to determine a false hope from an unfulfilled one?
My first answer is "If only I knew..."
In a looking-backward sense, I'd say it's the outcome.
In a looking-forward sense, I'd say it's the reliableness of the hope in question.
It's not to say all aspirations are bad - they can push us out of complacency toward an unattained joy, but that they should be tempered with something else.
To dream the impossible dream is nice, but be careful what you gamble on it. If you invest your happieness, your self-worth, your identity in it then you stand to lose a lot if it falls out from beneath you.
You could perhaps argue that Paul says a similar thing concerning the resurrection - that if it is not true, then we are to be greatly pitied beyond all other men, because we dedicate our lives to a monumental lie.
I like the credit card analogy, but I haven't really fleshed it out into a broad illustration. But for the specific circumstance I am reflecting on, it's safe to say that any hope I could see myself trying to pull from it would be pure fantasy, but nothing more.
But it's interesting that it doesn't work in reverse. Getting all bent out of shape about tomorrow doesn't make tomorrow happier than it would have been. The corollary to James's admonition "Don't say 'next year we will go and do business' but rather say 'if the Lord is willing...'" is simply "Do not worry about tomorrow."
It's well and good to think about tomorrow, but any and all plans, hope, thoughts, and dreams need to be kept in their proper, limited, place.
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