Hope, the Wind Beneath our Wings
“Man can live about 80 days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.” Unknown author
Eleanor Roosevelt, whose husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt led us though the worst war in our history, said the most important word in the English language is Hope. Watching folks climbing to their roofs, children in hand, during Hurricane Katrina, I know that to be true.
As I ran with my tiny dog from Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeannie, from South Florida to Texas, I hoped. Other evacuees I met also fled buttressed with hope.
As my neighbors in Hawaii ran from a tidal wave in the 1950s, most of them pregnant military wives left alone by their husbands’ assignments, they hoped.
When the worst flood in New York hit Corning and destroyed much of the town, including relics from the time of Christ and before, we all hoped.
After Katrina, it was hope that kept everyone moving towards safety. It was hope that sent some back to stricken homes, ready to start over again if necessary. Often with nothing but their hands and hope. It is hope that has Louisiana-born celebrities asking us to “come on down.” They hope they can help save their city.
The most touching example of hope happened in Texas, as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army and legions of volunteers from all over the state pitched in to welcome and aid Katrina’s victims.
A middle aged male evacuee asked this: “Are there any good hot dog restaurants here?”
He stood in front of a volunteer’s van, household goods he had just chosen from the mountains of donated goods at his feet. “No, we don’t have that sort of thing here,” he was told.
This man, who had just lost everything he ever owned but his life and his family’s lives, turned to his son. What he said touched everyone who heard it.
“Did you hear that, Tony? We can start a good hot dog restaurant here.”
Hope leads to goals, then hard work, then achievement — but first there must be hope.
Meditation for the Day
“ . . . Just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.” Eli Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel Peace Laureate
Action for the Day
Today and tomorrow, I’ll embrace hope for without it, the wheels are off the wagon.
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