A big deal is often made of hope, mostly positive, Pandora’s Box contained hope, to assuage the miseries it released. The Matrix: Reloaded even makes a point about it. Hope apparently is a saving grace, something that keeps us humans dreaming.
I don’t see it that way, to me, hope is something of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Hope offers no guarantees, just possibilities. These possibilities may or may not actually reach fruition. Thus, the reason we hope for them. So hope contains a fundamental uncertainty that we choose to ignore.
ex: I hope she likes me.
Now, she may or may not like me, I do not know, but I really want it to be true. Although this is what I want, I still recognize that it might not happen despite stuffing this knowledge deep down. Thus spawning the child of hope, anxiety.
Faith, on the other hand, is much more secure. True faith is unshakeable, because although it might be a referent to the same possibilities that can be hoped for, there is no room for doubt. It is something believed, not a possibility believed.
ex: I believe that she likes me.
Still, she may or may not like me, but I know that she does. I am secure in this belief. I am blind to the fact that I may be wrong, but at least the anxiety is nowhere to be found.
It is a shame I am a hopeful person instead of a hopeless one. Anxiety is never a good thing.