Today, I had the chance to watch the movie “Munich: The Edge of War” on Netflix. The movie was based on a book of the same name. While the movie itself wasn’t extraordinary or impressive as the subject was, there were certain messages and lines that stuck with me. Aside from the then UK’s then-prime minister’s “As long as war hasn’t started, there’s always hope that it can be stopped” attitude toward the 1937 Munich agreement between Britain and Hitler’s Nazi Germany, two fictional characters were created: the private secretary of Chamberlain, who wanted to follow the course of hope and dialogue between the countries to deter war, and his Oxford friend, who went from liking Hitler to hating him, and felt he had to do something because he thought: Hoping is waiting for someone else to do it!
I have thought a lot about the subject of hope. It’s not clear. I couldn’t get a clear answer, which is typical for me because my brain tries to simplify things and pick one side of a continuum. If we are waiting for someone else to do the thing we want to do, then we may have a good reason not to do it ourselves. For example, at times we remain in a mentally abusive relationship because we don’t have the courage to walk away, we don’t have a better alternative, or we are waiting for a miracle to fix everything. But then, everything we do is done in hopes of something. Some goals or plans. If nothing is certain in this world and we can only guess what will happen when we do something, all we can do is hope that something will happen. So, even when we feel like we’ve lost hope, we haven’t lost it completely. We’d rather do what we can and move on to the next thing.
Consequently, there is no way out of this circle of hope. Some people also think that getting out of the circle of hope is the same as being free. I don’t think such freedom exists. People act or don’t act based on how they feel, and these feelings come from having hope. The level and type of action and effect are based on how bad something is.
Asma Jan Muhammad
Dubai, UAE
Author’s Bio:
Asma Jan Muhammadis a finance specialist by day and a writer by night. Her extensive exposure to corporate financial management has honed her analytical skills which she aspires to use to inspire others. Her publications include “Reflections” and co-authored books “She Dares” and “She is Remarkable”. Asma believes in enabling others and in promoting tolerance, diversity, and equality through her writings.
