On hope

This week we read "Lothlorien." The Fellowship reach the Elf realm after their harrowing time in Moria.  On the way Aragorn checks on Frodo, who had been brutally stabbed during the fight in the Chamber of Records by an orc.  He is shocked to find Frodo is nearly unharmed - only bruised on his side.  Frodo reveals he has been wearing a coat of mithril, an extremely protective material, under his shirt.  Bilbo had given it to him while they were in Rivendell.  Merry exlaims:

'Bless the old hobbit!  I love him more than ever.
I hope we get a chance of telling him about it!'

"Why does Merry not say 'We'll have to tell him when we see him next'?  This is what people usually say in such a circumstance."
"Most people are not on such a doomed journey."
"Is it as simple as that?"
"Yes."
"..."
"..."
"Ok, well you gotta say at least a little more."
"People's circumstances, or at least their percieved cirucmstances, strongly dictate their actions.  How you are in a burning building is different than when in a nicely maintained garden on a cool spring day."
"That is obvious."
"So then why are you hectoring me?  Our text is a long exercise in doom. How to face it, how to survive it, and how to exist beyond it.  What Meriadoc Brandybuck experiences is beyond what most of  us have or will experience.  And that is a good thing."
"But if the experience is so far-removed from our own how much can we learn from it?  I mean, obviously we can learn because it is DIFFERENT, but how much of it is going to be useful to know?"
"What is not useful to know?"
"Anything for which you have not use.  Which is particular to each person as well as subjective."
"We've just said the journey is doomed.  But we know Merry - in fact almost everyone in the Fellowship, survives."
"Merry, at this point, doesn't assume he will.  This is why he says what he says.  He only hopes to see Bilbo again.  Anything else is too optimistic."
"What's wrong with being too optimistic?  Despair is unethical because it leads to inaction, but optimism?"
"Optimism, too could lead to that.  Assuming all will be well may seem to release you from your obligations to participate, since it doesn't matter."
"So it is possible to be too positive or too negative."
"But Merry is neither.  He hopes in the future.  That's all he can do, but it's more than some would dare."
"What would be wrong with saying 'We'll have to tell him when we see him next'?"
"I don't know if it would be wrong as in our ethics, but it would be strange.  They aren't going to Lothlorien as tourists."
"That's helpful!"
"Sarcasm is not app-"
"No, no.  I mean, in our world it would be usual to say 'I hope we get a chance of telling him about it.'  It's too pessiminstic.  You're not ever supposed to assume someone is going to die in such a way.  But you can say that about places.  'I hope we get a chance to see... go to... climb...'  These things we can hope."
"Why is this allowed?"
"I think in the realm of tourism, the journey is doomed.  Few people will go everywhere they wish.  So you can make that expression without turning heads."
"Hope in this way can also apply to collections, or hobbies, or study.  'I hope to get... to complete... to understand...'  All are doomed pursuits."
"But if one were to say 'I hope I get see my mother again...'  Wait, why is that wrong again?"
"Hope is optimistic and that's good, to a point.  But hope is the currency of the troubled.  If someone said "I hope to wake up tomorrow," you'd respond with concern.  And if they said, 'No, I'm just trying to be optimistic in the face of uncertainty,' then they'd technically be right but socially that word is the wrong choice.  The phrase 'I hope I get to see my mother again' is necessarily sad."

"If you find yourself hoping, you might be almost despairing."
"You would hope on a doomed journey, but not on a routine one."
"So when we see people hope, we should not assume optimism and stability, but a sense that things are going wrong."
"When someone expresses hope we should understand they are throwing out a lifeline, and we should respond by taking it, fastening it to what security we can, and engage in supportive friendship."
"When someone expresses hope we should not praise their optimism, but instead add fuel to their struggling flame."

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