I was in the liquor store last night, and talking with the cashier. The guy in front of me told her “there’s always hope” in relation to some problem she was having. She said “that’s just a cliche”, then to me “hope has never done anything but cause me pain. I’m a black woman and that is just how it is.”
I told her she could trust in persistence. She asked me if that was a cliche too, and I told that was the truth. Another black woman (I reference black since she did) in the store agreed. I told her you can’t quit, and that is something you can rely on.
Hope is a happiness you feel, thinking something good is going to happen. When it doesn’t happen, you feel worse. It is, therefore, a bad guide to the future for many people, except the lucky.
Yet, persistence IS a good guide for everyone. It is a form of what psychologists term “precommittment” (I read about this in the book “Willpower”, and had not heard the term before), in that you make the decision in advance that NO MATTER WHAT happens, you will keep going. You will keep moving until God takes the breath from your body and you go to whatever is next.
This is liberating, in that you can rule suicide, formal or virtual, out of your life and mind, and therefore confirm within your self the decision to grow in some way or other for the duration of your existence on Earth.