WHAT IS HOPE, ANYWAY?

“This may be the million dollar question you are trying to answer, says the newspaper reporter. ”But can you define what you mean by hope?”
The implication of his question is clear. He’s not going to be able to take the topic of hope research seriously unless I can clearly define what we are talking about. His approach sets my memory into overdrive, recalling all the conversations I’ve had with reporters over the years, conversations that started just the way this one has. It’s a slow but worthwhile process, educating one reporter at a time.
As we start down the path toward shared understanding, I am aware that there is an obstacle to overcome. It is, to be sure, a paradoxical obstacle. He believes that he has asked the million dollar question. His words suggest that the question has no answer. He is reflecting a very common belief that hope cannot be defined and therefore cannot be studied.
Though he may think there is no definition, the million dollar question has many answers, and all of them are correct. There are a number of well-respected definitions. Like excellent dinners, they have a lot in common when you look at the basics. Most of the differences lie in the final touches. Hope experts choose one that works for the job they need it to do. Some definitions focus more on the cognitive end of things. Others focus more on the emotional.
Since my own work is largely in the counselling area, often with people who still have hope, even though they are not totally in control of things that are causing them grief, I need a comprehensive definition with a good deal of flexibility. My preferred definition comes from Charlotte Stephenson in the nursing literature. It has grown from the body of research that developed a definition by asking people questions about hope.
Hope is: A process of anticipation that involves the interaction of
thinking, acting, feeling and relating, and is directed toward a future
Fulfillment that is personally meaningful" (Charlotte Stephenson, 1991, p.
1459). Thinking, feeling, acting, relating, future fulfillment, personally meaningful, in the context of counselling, there's a lot you can do with that. It means something to people who are suicidal, or grieving the loss of several loved-ones, or facing the prospect of imminent death, or fighting gang violence. When you have a conversation about hope, you sort out the tangle of thoughts, feelings, actions and relationships. As you untangle, you begin to see possibilities for a future fulfillment that is personally meaningful.
Different people use hope for different purposes. Newspaper reporters write about hope all the time. They use the word in articles that cover just about everything. They use it with confidence, certain that their readers will understand their meaning. As far as I can tell, they have few worries about hope’s definition until they find themselves interviewing hope researchers. This, I think, is because they already know what they need to know in order to make use of hope.
Our human understanding of any topic or thing is a layered phenomenon. Take water for example. All of us know that water is wet, something we drink, and something we use to clean. When we take a chemistry class we learn its chemical formula. Geologists know about the relationship between water and soil. Bridge designers understand how it impacts building materials. Health experts explore the relationship between water and digestion. We all know what water is. We observe that hot water is different from cold water. We are taught that tap water is different from distilled water. But in our complex world, where many things impact water, there is so much we don’t know about water that we will likely be studying it for thousands of years.
So it is with hope. We all know something’s about it. It is a feeling we have about the future, a good feeling. Some people have more of it than others. Most of us go looking for it when disaster strikes.
Like the geologists and bridge builders who study the behaviors and impacts of water, those who want to know more than the basics about hope have their own reasons for being interested. Some believe that more knowledge can improve the medical system, others the educational system. I study it because I believe that knowledge about hope can improve the practice of counselling. And every once in a while, a newspaper reporter gets interested because he wants to write an informed article about hope. Some of the people who read that article will get interested for their own reasons. For us hope enthusiasts, that is cause for celebration.