On Hope

borrowing happiness from the time to come

I am starting a new Interintellect series (part of a Western Canon series: Joseline Yu is covering Sir Gawain in a couple of weeks.)

I’m covering Shakespeare, Austen, Goethe, Turgenev, Wilde. The first salon is June 6: Shakespeare’s Inadequate Kings.

Also, if you aren’t sick of listening to me on podcasts, I did a short interview with Brian L. Frye, which was a lot of fun.

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On Hope

every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from the time to come
Samuel Johnson, Rambler 203

We are happiest when hopeful, perhaps only then. Hope is the belief that the blur of our lives will be resolved on some far out horizon—something else awaits.

There is no such thing as permanent satisfaction. Appetites renew, work falls undone, life accrues in rust and dust. New bread must be baked every day. A creature evolved to have far more intelligence than it needs for mere survival needs more to do with its surplus endowment of understanding than to elaborate more appetites. More complex, nuanced, individuistic pleasures are insufficient. Our work is never done and enjoyments are never enough. We must have hope.