Hope Is Ageless

Ok, bear with me on this:

Last year, Star Trek turned 50.  This year, Star Wars turns 40.

Both Star Trek and Star Wars, one way or another, are about hope.  In the case of the latter, that word pretty much carries Rogue One.  Disney rode that fictional hope to nearly $800 Million in worldwide box office (as of 1/2/17), and closed 2016 as a 7 billion dollar year for their books.  Hopes of great bonuses and stock dividends have come true for those in the Disney camp.

But hope isn't about whether or not you make that dollar.  It's about something more primal inside that keeps you going; an idea that things will be even better as you turn those corners toward the big, scary unknown.  Now more than ever, as we turn the corner in our real world into several unknowns, we need that idea of hope.

2016 took many of our celebrities from us.  It also took many lives from us that would never arrive at celebrity status, but had just as much value.  These lives were taken tragically.  What hope can be offered them.  I wish I knew; clearly two major entertainment franchises aren't going to offer hope to the families of those lives lost, to say nothing of those left behind by the passings of many a celebrity.  In the face of death, I've been led to believe most of my life that hope for a better afterlife should exist.  Let me clarify: both hope itself AND a better afterlife must exist.

At the beginning of a year, any person is faced with mixed emotions.  For some, it's the very minimal grief at holiday season gone by way too quick.  In light of recent political events, it's the mourning of progressive change and a growing concern over the future of protections for different walks of life that need such protections.  For others, it's the promise of new day, but hopefully for them it's not a new day built to crush the backs of those who walk those aforementioned other paths.

Every day, each of us wakes up to uncertainty.  Turning that corner from yesterday to the unknown future with all we have with us in the present.    Yep, I know.  That's a pretty cliche sentiment.  Some people think the same thing about hope.  However, without ideas circulating, we wouldn't have hope, idealism, or perhaps even imagination.  I would argue it's a foregone conclusion that all three went into the creation of Star Trek and Star Wars, as well as a lot of work.  And that's the reality setting in... doing the work.

I'll argue something else: mixing doing the work with a little hope, idealism and imagination may just be what gets us where we want to be in the end.  This is not a notion shared by many in positions of entitlement.  Hell, some entitled people I know even agree with this notion and still don't subscribe to it internally.  Regardless, it takes that mix of work and hope, no matter what your experience and reward.

To paraphrase one of my grandmothers, wish in one hand, work with the other, and see which one provides you results.  That's good motivation when you need to get working on something, but I say it takes both.  It's just that one hand takes more effort while the other may be what drives the work.  In fact, what both these hands can do together, begets more ideas.

I can't say where I'm heading in 2017, and some would have us believe we're all heading to hell in a hen basket.  Others would believe they'll finally get a fair shake.  I think I've got a pretty fair shake just by living and having the opportunity to hope in my left and work with my right to get where my imagination can take me.

As these blogs progress, I'll be sharing a little bit of everything.  I may not post everyday - but I'll be writing, creating, hopefully thinking everyday.  I can only hope all of you reading out there will, too.  No matter how big and scary the unknown may appear.