How can hope and despair be akin? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lalwendë · 01-26-2006, 05:14 AM

Warning: depressing post.

About life being meaningless. I can't say it's the same for everyone, but when I saw this out of control vehicle bearing down on me and knowing there was nothing I could do to get out of the way, in that split second obviously I had no hope whatsoever and was ready to die. I wasn't frightened. What did I honestly feel? A huge sense of disappointment! I thought "Oh, right, so this is how it happens. Damn." I can't forget that.

Hope and despair came into it later. I think both are only truly understood when we experience the depths that life has to offer, and for some this can come at a very young age, for others it happens later in life as the events we have been through take their toll. Some people are lucky and never experience true desperation. One of the reasons LotR has stayed as such a significant book for me is that it has reflected changes in my own life as I have got older and I find new ways of understanding it - one of those I like to think is understanding despair.

Anyone who has suffered depression will understand why hope and despair are akin, as the despair may take you down to the bottom of a very dark well, but the hope is the tiny chink of light that helps guide you out again, even if you do not realise it for some time. If the hope was not there then the despair would take over.

In Tolkien's work so many people find themselves on these brinks, some find the hope while others do not. Or should it be Hope as opposed to hope? It is a more significant thing to experience Hope than it is to have hope that it does not rain. If you are not at the brink of despair then really you have no need for Hope, so it is at that point when we recognise it. I think Despair is an irrational feeling, and so is Hope, but they are responses to situations that seem irrational to us.

01-26-2006, 05:14 AM	#14
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	Warning: depressing post. About life being meaningless. I can't say it's the same for everyone, but when I saw this out of control vehicle bearing down on me and knowing there was nothing I could do to get out of the way, in that split second obviously I had no hope whatsoever and was ready to die. I wasn't frightened. What did I honestly feel? A huge sense of disappointment! I thought "Oh, right, so this is how it happens. Damn." I can't forget that. Hope and despair came into it later. I think both are only truly understood when we experience the depths that life has to offer, and for some this can come at a very young age, for others it happens later in life as the events we have been through take their toll. Some people are lucky and never experience true desperation. One of the reasons LotR has stayed as such a significant book for me is that it has reflected changes in my own life as I have got older and I find new ways of understanding it - one of those I like to think is understanding despair. Anyone who has suffered depression will understand why hope and despair are akin, as the despair may take you down to the bottom of a very dark well, but the hope is the tiny chink of light that helps guide you out again, even if you do not realise it for some time. If the hope was not there then the despair would take over. In Tolkien's work so many people find themselves on these brinks, some find the hope while others do not. Or should it be Hope as opposed to hope? It is a more significant thing to experience Hope than it is to have hope that it does not rain. If you are not at the brink of despair then really you have no need for Hope, so it is at that point when we recognise it. I think Despair is an irrational feeling, and so is Hope, but they are responses to situations that seem irrational to us. __________________ Gordon's alive!