Saturday, September 29, 2007

janis joplin almost had it right

Hope is just another word for something left to lose.

What's your definition of hope?

30 comments:

S said...

Ah. I like that. It's just right.

Beruriah said...

Janis Joplin did have it right, but beyond that my free association came up with survival. Coping. Getting up in the morning.

M said...

I'll definitely have to give that some thought - but it would have to include my pets, the beautiful blossoms I had in my garden and didn't even notice but suddenly did, and the perfect babies I've had that didn't make it. There's more though, there has to be...

Magpie said...

I'm far too literal to answer that. After all, our wedding invitation included a dictionary definition of "marriage".

Feebee said...

For me, hope is the futile fixation that life still yet turn out as I planned. Stupid, stupid, stupid I know but I just can't help myself.

DD said...

Hope is something your friends will carry for you when your burden feels too heavy.

I'm here as your friend, Niobe.

Lori Lavender Luz said...

When I was going through IF, I hated Hope. I embraced the image of her as the last one left in Pandora's box, the most devastating force of all.

Didn't Janis Joplin sing about Freedom?

thirtysomething said...

Something, someone, a song even, that appears before you when you are not looking or searching for anything that gives you a little jolt, touches your heart in a way that makes you stop if only for a moment and take notice.

Pamela T. said...

Hope for me is the "I get it moment" -- either in the emails I receive or on the faces of those I speak to who never before contemplated what it means to experience infertility...

...Because what I hope *for* is that one day the painful blows of infertility don't land with the same ferocity because we're buffeted by the support of friends and strangers alike.

froggy mommy said...

I'm not quite sure what I define hope as, but I don't think Janis was too far off.

Suz said...

What you've written is so poetic that I hate to write what popped into my head which is that hope is a b*&ch. Plain and simple.

Katie said...

I'd say hope is for when you have nothing left to lose.
As an eternal optimist I'd like to think that I can always have hope, if I could still think like that after a day in your shoes I don't know.
Even despite the life many of the people in BUrma lead they still seem to have hope, I'd hope I could do the same.

Mrs. Collins said...

I like what DD wrote. You may feel out of hope, but the nature of hope is that even when you shouldn't have any, there is some buried somewhere just waiting for an opportunity to present itself. You've been through some hard times lately, and no one can deny that you may feel out of hope. It's hard for me to tell you to stay hopeful, when things have been easier for me. Hope is trying one more time, regardless of how many times you've tried before. I'm thinking of you.

Anonymous said...

I think hope is something I feel for others, but rarely for myself. I am past the point of hoping for me. But I do feel it for others.

Waiting Amy said...

I agree with you and Janis -- I'm just not sure what I have left. And yet I think Kate W has a point too. Maybe it is really what you have when there is nothing else left. I guess I'm just not really sure WHAT hope is anymore, except painful.

I too, love what dd said. I can carry hope for you. Like Reality, it is easy for me to hope for others, but nearly impossible for myself.

The Goddess G said...

Janis Joplin was right on this one. I wish I had something clever or inspiring to add...but...well...I don't. :)
~Carole

EmmaL said...

The same as faith I guess for me - belief in the face of the evidence to the contrary, or belief in the absence of any reason to believe. I am the eternal pessimist though. I guess I manage, despite that, to hang on to just a teeny tiny bit of faith or hope. I would say I am hopeful, but not optimistic about it.

thailandchani said...

I suppose the innate goodness of human beings when given the task to be good is what keeps me going. The idea that when it's necessary, most people will do the right thing.

I am a bit cynical about certain things.. like government, social systems and so on.. but people are inherently good.

If I didn't believe that, I would have packed it in years ago.

:)


Peace,

~Chani
http://thailandgal.blogspot.com

Furrow said...

Hope is caused by the ability to forget the past again, and again, and again. Same goes for war, oddly enough. Both can be necessary evils.

But I really like what DD said, too.

RBandRC said...

For me, hope is the idea that change is on the horizon. That something better is bound to come along at some point, if you just hold out long enough. But to be honest, I'm really tired of holding out already.

painted maypole said...

i disagree with janis (although I do like to sing along) I think that hope, true hope and not the sort of"I hope it doesn't rain" hope, Hope is the trust that something good is coming, something unseen and not totally known.

Anonymous said...

I have very little hope left. Sad I know!

Hugs
xxx

Joy said...

Hope is the thing that battles my despair.

Unknown said...

The belief that this too shall pass. Of course it may pass to something worse, but it will pass.

Doughnut said...

Hope is another four letter word but like most of them, its all how you wish to view it meaning any of them can be good or bad - on any given day. Its all relative.

Unknown said...

Hope is going "La, la, la!" loudly in my head and reading detective stories while praying it will all turn out ok and fearing a complete deluge.

Anonymous said...

The triumph of optimism over experience?

E. Phantzi said...

delusion, evanescence, and once in a while rapture.

S. said...

You know, I was just listening to that on the radio the other day and wondering about the shift from Kris Kristofferson, who wrote it from a man's perspective, and Janis Joplin, who sings it from a woman's.

Hope?

Hope and fear are the same: the belief that the future is coming, and not a damn thing you can do about it.

Lindsay said...

This is the day, I lost my daughter if it matters. I've been reading your blog like a book, carefully picking over the details and trying to decide why I'm so smitten with your writing. Let you know what I come up with.
Lindsay