Hope

Let me begin by telling you a small story. My favourite story from Greek Mythology.

Pandora’s Box.

There were once two Titan Brothers. Prometheus and Epimetheus. They promised their loyalty to Zeus and the Olympians. Prometheus was born with the gift of prophecy. He prophesied Zeus would kill his father and the other titans to become the king of God.

Zeus rewarded both the brothers by allowing them to create the first creatures of Earth. Epimetheus created the animals and gave them some form of protection for themselves. Prometheus created the men. All the protection was used up by Epimetheus and therefore Prometheus went on to ask Zeus for giving men the fire as a form of protection. Fire was mighty and so was Zeus. He refused to oblige Prometheus’s request. 

However, Prometheus had a kind heart. He couldn't bear the thought of his creation dying even before time begins progressing for the race of Human beings. Hence, he stole the fire from the hearth and unearthed it to men. Zeus was incensed with Prometheus, his ego was hurt. He was the king after all. Defying a King’s order deserved a brutal punishment.

Zeus tied Prometheus to rock with chains on a faraway mountain. Every day an eagle was sent to feed on his liver and the liver would regrow again. It was an endless cycle. One day, Hercules happened to walk by that mountain. He decided to free Prometheus.

Zeus was also outraged with men for accepting the gift of fire. He now decided to punish men. He created a beautiful woman resembling the beauty of Aphrodite (Goddess of beauty). He named her Pandora. The gods showered her with love, wisdom, grace, health, generosity and Zeus gifted her with curiosity.

He introduced Pandora to Epimetheus. Prometheus had warned Epimetheus of Zeus's trickery but he fell in love with Pandora’s beauty and decided to marry her.

On the wedding day, Zeus gifted Pandora with a small box. He told her never to open it. But eventually, the curiosity got over her. When she opened the box all kinds of hate, greed, jealousy, misery, disease, hunger, war and death flew out of the box. She faced horror. She shut the box and started weeping. There was something inside the box that was causing the box to quiver. She decided to open it again. She saw a small white light flickering inside the box. That was Hope.

The End.

Now, take a moment and think about it.
Have you ever noticed yourself frequently saying “I hope I do well on the test” or “I hope I don’t forget to get the grocery my mother asked me to buy after school” or “I hope I will go to Paris someday and kiss the love of my life in front of the Eiffel Tower”

If we start counting the number of times we use the word “Hope” from morning till night we would lose count. Our life basically revolves around hope. It’s a beautiful serene teeny-tiny feeling that is indulged into the speaker who says “I hope..” It contains all the positivity one needs to carry on to get through miserable times.

That one day you hope everything would be fine. That one day you hope your husband will stop drinking and comes home sober. That one day you hope you will save enough to make the trip to Hawaii. That one day you hope your parents will accept your betrothal to the girl or the boy you have always loved in spite of your caste or your religion.

To be honest, hope is just a feeling. There are chances that it might come true or it might not. 50-50. But that 50% gives you the strength to work harder to achieve it. On the other hand, hope doesn’t disappoint you either. When you hope for something and it doesn’t work out, you subtly think “That’s okay. I didn’t believe it would actually happen. I had no confidence.” You see, hope gets no blame because you start hoping for something else. Again. And again.
Mythologically speaking, imagine Pandora never opened that box again hadn’t she been curious about what is still inside the box so desperately trying to get out and hope was never released to the world.

Wouldn’t the misery, the negativity and the burden of life annihilate mankind even before we reach 2018? It would be Noah’s ark all over again. *Sigh*