This article in the Wall Street Journal provides some interesting ideas about hope and how hope can sometimes keep us from accepting and adapting to our current condition. We keep expecting that the hoped-for thing will come soon, so why bother investing time and energy into what's happening now?
[Update: 12/15/07]
Last Sunday's New York Times included an article on this topic:
It might seem strange that patients who are better off objectively were less satisfied with their lives, yet the finding makes sense: “If your condition is temporary,” Ubel explains, “you’re thinking, I can’t wait until I get rid of this.” Ubel says thoughts like these keep you from moving on with your life and focusing on the many good things that remain.
1 comment:
I just recently had a conversation with my dad about this very topic. We talked about how hope, especially in its religious conception, can tend to remove one from the present and fix one's eye on some hazy miraculous future. This sort of denial keeps us from being able to fully recognize and experience our present situations.
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