Beyond Survival

This is not me writing my thesis. This is Hope, a painting from 1886 by George Frederic Watts. In Greek mythology, Pandora opened a box and let out all evil, all plagues and diseases. When she closed the box, only Hope was left inside. Hope – who might at first look as despair here – holds a lyre with only one chord. Watts himself said that ”Hope need not mean expectancy. It suggests here rather the music which can come from the remaining chord”. Barack Obama, president of the United States, was inspired by a sermon based on an analysis of this painting and named his second book ”Audacity of Hope”. The audacity of hope here refers to the ability to continue to play when the evil of the world has bereaved you of all but one chord.Getting a diagnosis of a brain tumor as a child, might at first seem like total despair. My clinical work, my research and my thesis is all about hope, but hope without ignoring despair. I want to help my patients to understand what chords they have left, and enable them to play with the remaining chords, that is to help them create the audacity of hope.