Making Sense of Hopefulness and Hopelessness in our Experiences

I often conjure up the extreme versions of hopefulness and hopelessness after 18 years of engaging in many conversations about the power of attending to threads of hope and hoping in the stories that we live and tell over time and in different places.

These two extreme versions include Pollyannaism at one end of the spectrum and individuals who, oftentimes through no fault of their own, cannot story themselves forward in the next moment let alone imagine themselves moving toward a future in which they envision themselves participating with enthusiasm and interest.

And yet, as one youth put it, we need pessimism and at times feelings of hopelessness to inspire hopeful ways of relating, feeling, acting and thinking. I often present hopefulness and hopelessness living alongside each other or on the flip sides of a coin. Other philosophers and researchers would agree with the above, which explains why I continue to find ways to make sense of stories like the following.

A classroom teacher and I were invited to present our experiences of finding ways to connect to her students' understandings of hoping and being hopeful at a conference. The teacher shared her stories of becoming less worried and in fact, feeling more hopeful about her students' feelings of hopefulness, despite the barriers they faced. I shared how a nursing researcher, Herth, (1996) encouraged me to suggest to this teacher that she and her students initiate their journey of making sense of hope and hoping by starting with drawings of their experiences of hope and hoping. I also shared other strategies that I had learned from working alongside and with Hope Kids.

At the end of the presentation, a gentleman approached us to tell us that what we suggested, in his opinion, was nothing more than 'Pollyannaism'. The teacher and I thanked him for sharing how he felt. Before leaving on our separate ways, the teacher and I agreed that although the gentleman was clearly not happy with what he learned that day, he was at least affected enough to courageously tell us what he thought. For me, that was enough to feel that perhaps we had nudged a response. Perhaps, not the response we had hoped for, but a response that one day might shift given that we prompted him to act on his feelings.

I am very okay with what transpired that day because I've learned that hopeful people ask themselves, "What's the smallest thing that I need to do to feel like I'm moving into a future in which I am interested and enthusiastic to participate in?" Knowing that perhaps, the gentleman had and/or is possibly still having conversations about hopefulness and hopelessness that I might in turn, learn about in the future, continues to sustain my way of being as I make sense of my own feelings of hopefulness and hopelessness.