Comments on Black Dog Days: Trial By Terror

Yes, I see what you mean. I hope this isn't a cra...

2005-07-16T23:48:00.000+10:00

Yes, I see what you mean. I hope this isn't a crass thing to say, but do you think that having a child means that one must hope, because hopelessness cannot be an option? I don't have children, but I can imagine that if I did I might feel that because they were dependent on me, I had to live, and therefore had to hope. Imagining this now, it feels to me as if it might well be a harder thing to do than one of my options - which is to surrender to hopelessness if things get too tough.

The question of whether hope is a cruel and ironic...

2005-07-16T14:22:00.000+10:00

The question of whether hope is a cruel and ironic device that sustains personal suffering or a distant beacon on which to focus and seek comfort in the darkest of hours is as fascinating as it is important. I find that I have been drawn each way in my hoping at different times. In my own experience however I typically find that I am battered more by the unfulfilled expectations of hope than its potentially masochistic function. I am unable to say for certain why that is although I do think in my case I have steeled myself against the latter interpretation beacuse as you say - "without hope there is very little left." And I have too much to live for to indulge in any other option.

(P.S. by phrasing it this way I am not suggesting that its indulgent to suffer through the sustaining power of hope it's simply my way of keeping an additional degree of mental separation. Hopefully this is a safeguard from being battered too mercilessly by hope).

I think I recognize quite a lot of what you descri...

2005-07-16T07:45:00.000+10:00

I think I recognize quite a lot of what you describe here. Certainly the necessity to be endlessly patient rings bells. I do confess though that sometimes hope and hoping feel to me more like a cruel prolonging of agony than lifelines. But I guess without hope there is very little left.
Take care
B