Despair

"Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. I remember the killers, I remember the victims, even as I struggle to invent a thousand and one reasons to hope. "
-Elie Wiesel, in "Hope, Despair, and Memory" his Nobel lecture.

"What we call despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope."
-George Eliot

I contemplated the word despair today because someone my husband knew passed very suddenly. The circumstances surrounding the passing are unknown and the family is not wanting to share at this time the reasons. I however, feel that despair might have been the cause. If this is the case there are so many people who have come into contact through the years that have danced a dangerous dance with despair. I myself at times have felt its chilling company. It was never a guest that I allowed to stay for long, but I know that many do not know how to rid themselves of this oppressive visitor. Hope is such an amazing thing that keeps us fighting in this life even when things seem like they cannot be any more daunting. It is the thing that makes us believe that there is something greater. I think of Elie Wiesel who endured the torment of hell on earth and still clung to hope. Not only did he cling to hope he did so every time he was awakened at night by the nightmares of the reality he endured. I think of so many people today who live beyond torments that I can even fathom. They hold on to the embers of hope and pray that they spark an illumination that leads them out of the darkness that binds their life into the beauty of what life can possess. George Elliot equates despair as the "painful eagerness of unfed hope". That makes me believe that despair is temporal and can be alleviated. When I read the quote I had a vision of a hungry person being satiated by food. If we can feed the hungry with food, surely we can nourish those who have fallen into despair with hope. Just a few things to think about.