by Julia Kang-Reeves, CMO
Earth Therapeutics
What is HOPE, anyway?
I have been pondering hope for many years.
Then, recently, it was no longer a subject to leisurely ponder. But rather, I sat up, head in hand, like the Thinker, and considered it deeply, upside down, backwards and sideways. Somewhat like love or peace, hope is a concept hard to ground in reality. But we need to. Because what the world needs now is hope, real hope.
What is HOPE?
Hope is a gift to humankind.
In Hesiod’s Works & Days, there is a myth about Hope, elpis. When Zeus wanted to get back at Prometheus for giving mankind fire as a tool for advancement, he had his fellow gods sculpt the beautiful Pandora, deck her out to the hilt, and give her a jar (or box) full of gifts to present to Prometheus. When his brother, Epimetheus, opened the jar, everything flew out; only hope clung to the lid.
We are left at a cliff hanger, open to interpretation. Is hope a part of our humanity? Or not?
Hope is ambiguous.
Like any tool, it’s double-edged. We can sit around and cling to hope, waiting till the day we are rescued. But if the day never comes, or if it comes and the promised rescue never happens, we pay a greater price. And fall into cynicism or despair.
Hope is future-oriented.
We can only hope for a future time or event. Depending on how we decide to define hope for ourselves, the future, our future, both individual and collective, depends on it.
Hope is collective.
This was the turning point in my thinking about hope. And how to make it real. It’s not about just ourselves – me, myself and I – but each of us as part of a group, not just any group – but humanity. This is not an either/or proposition, however. Becoming part of a group does not eclipse us or our individuality or our unique, authentic, heart-inspired selves. In fact, bring it on. Bring it in. We just have to zoom outward and see each of us as a pulsating, bright star in a constellation.
Hope is contagious.
Whenever I feel down and out, I know that the antidote is gouging myself out of my own head, the mill of my thoughts that go nowhere quickly and pop myself into a group of friends. It is alchemical. The change of perspective is immediate and radical.
Hope is about the common bond.
There’s been so much written about friendship in the past few years – and this has been more confusing than clarifying. There is friendship that is one-on-one, besties; perhaps the way some say that their husband or wife is their best friend. And then there is friendship which is looser – that’s based not on the person or personality – but rather, on shared interest. For instance, if you’re part of a writer’s group, what matters is not whether you like every member, but the shared goal of becoming better writers. Whether it’s a neighborhood association or a sewing circle, it’s the united vision that binds.
Hope is chemical.
Now, this is the pièce-de-résistance of my thoughts about hope. I hated chemistry in high school, but what came to mind was the Periodic Table of Elements. And physics, which I hated more, and its constant dance of electrons. In this group, aka humanity, composed of people we like and perhaps don’t like, lassoed in by a shared purpose, we are constantly in motion, influencing each other and generating a spark, which can, given the right moment, turn into a fire.
Yes, here we come full circle back to Prometheus, who gave humankind fire to advance our cause. But it’s not just fire, but potentially electric. This is how we release hope from its potential energy clinging onto the lid – into the air. We must generate – together as humanity – the energy to ignite hope for the future. Then hold hands and jump together across the chasm, not just to the other side, but one level up to a higher playing field.
Hope is about equality.
As the child of immigrants and an immigrant myself – from Seoul, Korea, at age four – who later in life (in my 30s) immigrated to London, where I had my daughter, I thought a lot about being American and the values of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. How our Founding Fathers thoughtfully asserted: “That all men [meaning humankind] are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I took this literally and still do – and despite all our visible and invisible differences, no matter where we come from and whom we love, we are at the core – created equal.
Hope is human.
What inspired me to sit down and type out this article is an NPR podcast episode of “Planet Money” entitled: “Asking for a friend…which jobs are safe from AI?” And learning about the EPOCH score, which ranks AI-safe jobs. EPOCH is an acronym that stands for:
Empathy
Presence
Opinion
Creativity
Hope
The full category for Hope is: Hope, Vision & Leadership. All of which require an irreplaceable human capacity of inspiring us to a shared future goal. AI can only replicate what is already present or past; its algorithms are circular and stuck, barred from a truly inspired calculus for the future. Only within a human soul – inextricable from our blood and bones - can these factors come together in a truly unprecedented, unique way. We are always, believe it or not, one step ahead.
Go, humans,* go!
*Not one iota of this article was generated by AI.
