What is it no one can live without? Air? Water? Food?
There are thousands of things we can’t survive without. I’d been racking my brains to invent a universal answer. Finally it occurred to me that probably one of the most vital things for people is hope. We wake up with some hope, we go to bed with some other, and our life in its entirety is filled with hopes and different expectations. One can talk about his hopes for a long time, but is it possible to embody our dreams by means of photography? Or is it just a fruitless attempt to give flesh and blood to nebulous ideas? Here are some photos which, in my opinion, perfectly reflect the standpoint that primarily each good picture is a mixture of feeling and thoughts. The first thing I see in each picture is that it is covered with a thin air of hope. What do all of these people believe in? What is leading them through thorny ways of life? What are they waiting for? What gives them strength and courage to get up every day and live despite all the difficulties?
When I came across the first pic (that is with a group of people sitting on the bench), I thought that one was the most vivid example of how people can hope against hopes. Why is the woman smiling? She has a baby in her hands, and, I guess, many hard thoughts in her mind. The baby itself can’t have any hopes yet, and that is why other people are responsible for him. It is not just a chance that a photographer took a snap of these three people. The cripple on the left and the drunkard on the right are like a frame to this photo. This frame is the society where this kid is supposed to live. And to my mind only hope can help this child to live through all the hardship, it is hope that is able to pull him out of filthy ditches and stuffy undergrounds. This child will suffer the shipwreck of hopes not once, his hopes may evaporate some day, but he has no right to abandon them; hope is the only resort. Do we remember our hopes when we were small children? What were we dreaming about? We tried to make sand castles and every minute we hoped they would stand up to any winds and sea waves. Could we know that even strong houses are knocked down?
Can we predict what our hopes will be when we are old? What will make our last days meaningful and remarkable? Looking at the last picture, I can’t but remember a well-known truth:”Hope can see invisible things, it feels what is impalpable and everything is possible for it”. We don’t know what this woman’s eyes have seen during all her long life, but they are still sharp-sighted. She definitely knows what she’s been living for and what is ahead of her. The age is not a sentence for her, it is not the end because hope has no end, you know.
And maybe you're speaking about the same thing but just call it differently? Actually,what does it matter? The point is that this thing helps us and gives us patience.
Perhaps you will call me cynical or pragmatic, but I consider not hope but goal the most vital essential... What is hope? How can you influence your hope? I looked up "hope" in a dictionary and could not find any way for ME to impact on my hope....Different types of hopes wander in the air:ardent, slender, false, reasonable, vague and many others....It is even written that hopes come true or fade.....But what can YOU do with it? Of course, you may stir up hope or dash it, but where is the development.....Are you satisfied just having it? I'm not.... I think that advance and management is far more important in one's life......If the whole life is a studying process, I prefer "active learners' participation". There are so many ways to manipulate the goal, but the two I like most of all is to set a goal and to achieve it....They sound very positive, don't they? Don't you go to bed planning the strategy to attain it? Goals make the whole life a perpetual offensive battle.... May be I prefer being a solder to being a princess well, folks, I don't know....but being a fox, I'll end my comment with the following: All we need is love. And this is a real essential....Nevertheless we often don't recognize it or just try to fool the surroundings or even ourselves .....
No, I won't call you neither cynical nor pragmatic. But to my mind goal is secondary because it must have some basis to be set on. And I'm sure we can't achieve our goals without hope. Of course, you can have your own standpoint, and my task is not to convince you and not to provide you with undeniable evidence of my rightness.
I agree with Jane... To have a goal we need some basis in our life. Speaking about this child, I can say that now he has neither goals nor hopes. He feels only the the warmth and the love of his mother. And that's enough for him. I'm really beware of one thing: while he'll be a child he'll think like adults (about money, food, home etc.). And when he'll become an adult, he'll regret about childish little wishes and pieces of happiness. I mean he'll grow up too fast... But still I hope he won't and will have a real life of a happy child.
Jane, I liked your article very much. And I so agree with you that even if everything goes wrong HOPE helps us to withstand all the calamities of life. And I'd like to add that I find it impossible to live without friiends, without such strong support, without those people who brighten up our life.
Dear missJane! Great observations! Thought-provoking comments! For me personally hope is the one thing that gives me inner strength to cope with life irregularities. The last photo is an impressive look into oneself - years of life eperience and no repentence or hopelessness. The old woman is happy because she is content with what she has and could gain in her life. What strikes me is that her stare doesn't cause any regret or sadness. Her life wisdom makes you feel strong and hopeful. Sorry, MissJane, but some mistakes must be corrected. 1) "It occurred to my mind" - into - "It occurred to me"; 2) "despite of all the difficulties" - into - "despite all the difficulties" (but - in spite of); 3) "heavy thoughts" - into - "hard thoughts"; 4) "would stand any winds" - would stand up to any winds..". I know that other students have joined our Internet site and started to share their comments and post messages.
