A Crisis of Hope

Tell me, what situation could be more hopeless than losing someone you love to death?

I do believe in an afterlife, though I cannot offer much insight as to what it might look like. I just know that there has to be a higher purpose; a bigger picture that we as mere humans cannot begin to grasp: like ants in the jungle.

And yet, when we lose someone who means everything to us, don't we tend to feel as though we've been robbed? Violated? It happens to other people and we feel sadness coupled with a brief sense of fear, after which we go right back to thinking that our lives are somehow untouchable; drenched in invincibility. We count our blessings: one, two, three, four - yes, they're all still there. What a relief. Then one night we forget to lock our doors and coincidentally it turns out to be the same night that a thief is lurking in the distance. All our lives we never had to worry about such a thing, so we become desensitized to it, labelling it storybook fiction.

It's a dangerous ignorance.

How many of us, even with a belief in afterlife, would not bring back our loved ones if we could? My selfish desire is for more time, and you had better believe I would bring my dad back if I could. I wouldn't think twice.

Hostages can cling to the hope that they will one day be rescued or devise a brilliant escape plot. The terminally ill can take refuge in the hope of a cure or miracle. The broken down and alone can find solace in knowing that life often changes, people are not stagnant.

But, what hope is there for us? What options have we been presented with? Where is our refuge? Don't we have any choices?

The answer is no! Isn't that unbelievable? We just have to live and accept it. Grin and bear it. Soldier on no matter what. All the while feeling more helpless than premature newborns.

Death in itself is not a matter of hopelessness. The emptiness left behind in those affected by it, that's the real tragedy.