By - Dr. Asangba Tzudir
Another new year is here, and looking around, we seem to have awakened to the same old things with its ‘mundaneness’ albeit a numerical change. Such thoughts lingers without any hope and gets caught up in the same old web of problems, issues and challenges offering hardly anything to look forward to. But behold, the old has passed by and it is time to invoke the newness by looking at things from a new vein injecting new hopes and thereby feelings.
As such, the new hopes and feelings gives an opportunity to pause, reflect, rethink and also reset since the newness can only be recreated through a process of renewal and thereby moving away from the past and looking forward with optimism. The process of renewal calls not for wish but a force that fuels action, innovation, and resilience. It drives people to rebuild after setbacks, pursue dreams despite obstacles, and strive for a better world. Without a new ray of hope and feelings, life can be reduced to an endless grind unceasingly churning out the same thing over and over again producing nothing new.
While hope is not simply about optimism which simply may be blank, naive, and without roots or one that is derived from a pragmatic vision, and can be shallow because it is subject to the changing circumstances of life. Yet, hope and feelings needs to be the foundation for progressive growth. Whether it is learning a new skill, new venture, mending relationships, or pursuing long-deferred goals, hope empowers individuals to believe that change for the better is possible.
Globally, the world is undergoing significant challenges on various fronts. There are issues of economic disparities, climate change and issues of sustainability, conflicts of various forms, emerging diseases and issues of healthcare, and social breakdown. Yet, side by side, the world continues to offer various potentials and opportunities. Advancements in science and technology, medicine, and renewable energy continue to offer hope for the future generations. And in a conflict ridden world, global leaders continue to come together calling on peace, justice and equality. Such advocacy testifies the power of collective hope and action.
Towards such horizons of new hope and feelings, the New Year invokes each individual to awaken to a resolute heart and mind and cultivate hope not as a passive feeling but as an active commitment to love and care for one another, the humanity, environment and the world at large, while also seeking a common ground, and work toward shared goals for a peaceful world order. This New Year also invokes the heart and feelings to weave new dreams and to act thereupon.
So, hope and feelings comes to lie at a threshold between hope being dangerous and as a launching resource. In order for hope to pass through the dangerous threshold, conception of hope should be premised on the truth that, truth should not only be known but spoken for positivity of hope within a meaningful praxis and which first requires reconciling with truth while also being mindful of one’s ‘truth factor.’ Until then, this New Year will be nothing except a switch over to another calendar year with a numerical change.
Reconciling hope and truth will create renewed pathways to envisage possibilities and unlock all the potentials that the New Year lies waiting to be unravelled. This will give the impetus to act on the responsible pursuits and create hopeful meanings.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir writes guest editorials for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
