Well sports fans, it’s Good Friday. If I recall from my Sunday school lessons so many years ago, it’s all about Jesus and resurrection and forgiveness and such. Whether you believe in all that or not, it’s a pretty interesting story. Heathens that we now proclaim to be, this year we’ll be celebrating Good Friday with the newfound knowledge that our self-isolation period has just been extended by 2 more weeks. Kinda figured that was coming but hope springs eternal.
As my conservative Republicans used to say while President Obama was in charge, “hope is not a plan”. That may be true, but hope is all many people in the world have, perhaps much of what drives their will to live. Maybe if they work 3 jobs for slave wages their children will have a better life. Maybe through their extraordinary efforts they’ll lift their families out of poverty. Maybe they’ll beat cancer and enjoy a long life after all. Maybe Covid-19 will only produce a mild reaction, or they’ll be completely asympomatic.
Nearly 26 years ago I was in a catastrophic aircraft crash, a result of a very short lapse in my generally good pilot judgement. Nobody to blame but me. Got a helicopter ride to a trauma center, various emergency surgeries, days in intensive care followed by months in a hospital bed. Learned what true friendship was and realized the love and support of my brother and sister who really were there for me. Four months of physical therapy, months of hobbling around with the use of crutches or a cane followed by several years of walking with quite a lot of pain. No reason to be bitter or cranky about my lot in life, heck the first 35 years were golden!
About 3 years after that mishap I met this amazing English girl while on a live-aboard SCUBA boat in Australia. Darned if we didn’t realize we shared a common dream for the future, and we got married in 1998 - just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. Finally got to where I walked without a noticeable limp. Thanks to my darling wife learned how to save more money while maintaining a high quality of life and invest in our future together. Finished a strong and satisfying career at a giant aerospace company when retirement pensions were still a “thing”.
Now we’re out here on our little sailboat in a virtual paradise, enjoying each other’s company and the benefits of being in self-isolation without access to the 24-hour news cycle. We’re pretty sure we’re living the dream, certainly our version of it.
I don’t know if Jesus had hope or complete confidence when he was hanging there on the cross, but I know without hope a lot of us wouldn’t achieve our dreams.
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