Hope - Your World Within

Composed by：Edgar Joseph Pinero

Hope

That bridge that connects the present to a more ideal world

The idea that no obstacle is too big to overcome

No situation too dire to emerge victorious

And that you are never confined to how things are

FDR has said we have always held to hope

The belief the conviction that there is a better life

A better world beyond the horizon

Why does this matter

Well to put it simply before one can leave the situation they are in

They have to believe there is another path worth taking

It's not always seeing but trusting

It's a tale of two components

One the belief that something better is out there

And two the belief that you are strong enough

To bridge that gap to create that world

So let's start with number one

There was a study done by Kurt Richter in the 1950s

And he used rats and it was kind of a gruesome experiment

But definitely worth talking about

Because the takeaway is incredible

Right and I kind of cherry picked the relevant parts of the experiment

Basically he wanted to delve into the role that hope plays in our lives

And what he would do is

He would drop rats into a jar of water and observe

See how long they'd swim before they drown

And for the most part these rats would swim for a minute or two

And then ultimately give up

There was this innate feeling of hopelessness

But then he made a change and

And when they were close to drowning

He'd reach in he'd pick them up

He'd hold them for a little while

And then he'd place them back in the water

And the results between the two groups were night and day

The rats saw in the second group that it wasn't over

And when they were placed back in the water

They had a reason to continue swimming and they did

Some of them did for hours

The only difference being that they had hope

They saw there was more

And I don't think that's too different from us

The situation may be different

But the rules generally apply right

So much of conceding or giving up in life

Accepting an existence that falls short of our ideals

Is when we don't believe in something more we stop swimming

We don't give ourselves a chance

So instead of creating bridges to walk on

We make walls that lock us in

Hope is knowing all pain all discomfort is temporary

And the second component is belief in yourself

Belief in yourself to traverse that space

Between current and the ideal it's self empowerment

You can be the difference maker in your life and others

And it's funny the other day after reading about the Richter experiment

I was sitting at a friend's house with my laptop

Kind of trying to figure out what to make of it

Because the idea of hope I knew was powerful

And then I wanted to share that story

I wanted to write something that would highlight its value

But it seemed kind of unfinished

Or simply part of an explanation

I'm sitting there thinking about it

And I hear this loud bang over and over again

And I get up and I run to the back of the house

To make sure everything's fine see what's going on

And my friend standing there

With goggles on this grin on his face and a sledgehammer

And a huge hole in the wall in front of him

And I'm like dude what are you doing

You just knocked your wall down

And he goes yeah I wanted to make another closet

His family's growing he needs more space

And he just took it upon himself to make that happen

I just looked at him and walked back out

Started walking the living room and it hit me

This is a component of hope

Seeing what's not there and doing something about it

If this swimming experiment is step one

This has to be step two in real time

Step one believing seeing something more

Step two taking action to change it now

Buying into the fact that you have the power

To change your own world

It's funny because any house or room I've ever ever lived in

My thoughts always you know you look around

And this is this is it right this is the situation

This is what's being given to me

How do I make the most of it

How do I play within these parameters

Not okay this is fine but it could be better

You know by smashing down the wall in the back over there

Creating something new

And you know obviously the message here isn't about home maintenance

This is about taking a sledgehammer to the places in your life

In which you are not content

So that you can build in its place something that matters

You look around to your left your right and you're unhappy

That's not the end of the story

That's the beginning of the story

That's where the wheels hit the road

In other words it's looking at life with the lens

With the freedom of knowing things don't have to be what they are

They don't have to stay the same until the universe changes them

No they can be what you make them

And what life teaches us again and again

Is that walls can be stepped over

No's can become yes's impossibles can become commonplace

But first there must be hope

There must be an understanding that your world is

A 10,000 foot view of all the little stories you tell yourself

And the narratives you believe

See every day when you wake up

And take your first steps breathe your first breaths

Know that nothing simply is

No it is simply chosen and can be re-made

That's what makes life such a beautiful thing

Its flexibility its promised to provide what has been relentlessly sought out

So remember it's when you can't find your answer

When the odds look grim when the rest of the world tells you no

That you most need hope

Hope the power the strength to look within yourself

And remember that one life can change and two you can change it

Armed with this understanding nothing is impossible

When others fail to see the answer the light in themselves in the situation

You become the reminder that light is internally manufactured

We aren't given answers so that we may believe them

We are given the opportunity to believe and thus we create

That ending we hope to pursue

And without this life is nothing more than a permanent status quo

It's holding our hands to the sky

And receiving what life chooses to provide

But that's not why you're here it's not why you woke up today

Not to accept but to create to find hope

In the tragedy and the hardship and to find within yourself

The strength to move forward

With whatever you decide comes next