Poise, bravery, and hope

New Year’s resolutions usually aim at doing something, either more or less. We may intend to do more sports, eat less, smoke less, or even work less. Could we also aim at changing our attitude and state of mind to a certain extent? It may be needed in this time when everyone around us seems to be in deep despair about our future, whether it relates to work, war, immigration, climate, or the dangers of eating Christmas trees.

In this valley of tears, there is really a lot to worry about. Although there is always a slight irony in my blogs, our common tendency to be pessimistic is not totally unjustified. Our fears are triggered by the incredible rate at which everything changes. We are missing solid structures in our lives. The solid structures of religion, marriage, family, work often turn into liquids, and it sometimes looks as if we always need to restart reconstructing them like Sisyphus. It makes us extremely vulnerable. Even worse, pessimism may become self-fulfilling.

My New Year’s resolution would be to stay steadfast in the face of uncertainty. We can’t really decide never to be afraid. Fear is an emotion and usually catches us unexpectedly. We can however try to keep our poise and stay brave in the face of what is coming. The brave attitude is certainly less comfortable than the ‘run away’ or ‘blame it on the others’ attitude but it is the one which we regret the least later on. What keeps us going is the hope. The pessimists may be right but hope never dies.

Picture: pedestrian bridge in Tours, France 2019 ©Wim Lahaye