Hope is dangerous. Sometimes.

Hope = Dreams = Aspirations = Ambitions
Being more than what you are

I had a long night last night, preparing for a client presentation for this afternoon and doing social work again. This time by phone, to my friend's father in Singapore.

I've blogged about it before, about a family deep in trouble over debts with the father valiantly but hopelessly trying to raise money via bookies. When you owe $300,000 and all you have is $100 in your pocket and 14 days to pay, I guess the last place you look at to raise money is fixed deposit or mutual funds.

I won't go into the personal details of this tragic case, only to toss around this thing called hope.

There's something about hope that makes us walk with purpose. A new child is hope to a parent (my opinion, correct me if I'm wrong). Its the Parent version 2.0. Its a new beginning, a chance to do it again without all the mistakes, gaffes, and missed opportunities. Who doesn't want a second chance.

The same manifests in business, friendship, lifestyles. Its in our nature to be forward looking, positive thinking and hope for the best. Sometimes our dreams come true and we live happily ever after. But sometimes....

Truthfully I have mixed feelings about hope. I'm not anti-hope but social work lets you look beyond the fairy tale setting. Show me any case and I can tell you it all started with hope. A guy mortgages his house because he hopes to make a million in the stock market. A lady marries a loser because she hopes he could turn around. Parents send their son to an expensive school because they hope he could become a great person. Noble visions that turn out great lives if successful.

Then there's the flip side. A conman hopes no one will catch him ripping off retirees. A vengeful person hopes something bad will befall on someone he has a score to settle with. A gambler who puts down his last $100 on a bet hopes he'll roll it to a sum big enough to pay off his $300k debt. And the bookies who take the bet hopes the odds will stack against hope.

If you take away the judgemental aspect, hope is what keeps all these people moving forward.

But misguided or not, we humans cannot live without hope. If I tell someone, "Uncle, please don't gamble away your last $100," he will probably say, "You are killing the last hope I have. You want my life to be hopeless is it?"

Yes, you wouldn't condemn someone to a life without hope would you. I've asked this question before - which would you prefer, an uncertain future with hope or a certain future without hope. And I think I know your answer to the question.

But hope is innocent. Its what you hope for that matters. Unbridled foolish hope can only be reigned in by something we youngsters loathe. Its that most uncool, unhip, wet blanket thing called wisdom. Well we are only human so when faced to choose between wisdom and ignorance, what do you think we'll choose?

I dunno about you but you have to admit there's something about watching giggling people bungee-jumping off a cliff (obviously hoping to get an adrenalin rush), the cable snaps and they plunge head first onto the rocks at 200 km/h. Splat, hahaha, shrugs. Let's hope the next one is funnier.