Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

Title is the tagline from the film The Shawshank Redemption, one of my favourite films.

It's a pretty simple concept, fear crippling you, hope shoring you up...

There are two quotes on hope in the film that resonate with me. Towards the end the protagonist states that 'Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things...', a complete opposite of what was stated to him earlier that 'Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane'.

People who know me well would probably guess that I identify more with the latter quote. A lot of the time life is about hoping, advertently or inadvertently, we are constantly hoping. In all situations, that things turn out for the best, that a positive outcome is realised. Sometimes hope is abstract, oft times it's specific to a particular matter. At all times it has the ability to drive a person insane.

It's that idea of hoping for the best, constantly hoping for the best and having to adapt/adjust when it doesn't pan out. And what's crazy is we keep hoping, even when everything points to things not working out, we keep hoping till the very last minute. It's like cold comfort, and when things constantly don't work out, that's when insanity may set in.

But despite it's ability to drive you insane, I don't knock hope because it literally keeps you alive, keeps you going, especially in dark and difficult times.

Hope and faith (if you are fortunate enough to believe) shore you up and sometimes if you are lucky and the gods are with you, it does pan out, a'la Andy Dufresne in Shawshank, and then you can look back and see hope as the best of things.