Weekly Response #1

Yu-Jen(Chris),Tsai
ADP III 005

Beyond Hope

Finish reading articles at the length of this is usually a painful task for me; however, the way Derrick Jenson discusses the term "hope" and the relationship between us and the environment make the article a quick-read for me. "Hope is, in fact, a curse, a bane." Mr. Jenson stated in this very article, which is correct in some ways to me once I have finish reading rest of the passages. He supported this idea by using the story of the Pandora Box as an example; however, the idea of the story is saying that the last thing that came out of the box, hope, besides plagues, sorrow and mischief is suppose to be the only goodness that should've get released from the box.

Derrick Jenson explains how the word "hope" works; to hope is to idealize the current situation we are in and not practical. He says that people always "hope" that the natural crises can have an end, which is same as assuming the situation would only get worse in the future. We shouldn’t just hope things to get better as time goes on. Over the summer in early August, in my hometown, Taiwan, had a serious natural catastrophe caused by the typhoon, similar to United States’ “Hurricane”. Dozens of buildings got drawn into the river by the landslide due to the shocking amount of precipitation. And when the residence saw their entire house destroyed in matter of seconds, the villagers burst into tears and kneeled down while crying out loud. When I saw the image on the news, I couldn’t imagine how would I feel when all of a sudden everything that matters the most to me got taken away from me. Many family members died during the tragedy; little kids that are still in grade school cried because they knew they won’t be able to see some of their classmates ever again. And people around the world “hope” that disaster like this never happened; they “hope” they could do something about it. But how much of them did?

I went down to the disaster area with some of my high school friends back in Taiwan and helped the victims of the terrible tragedy carried food and supplies, dug out the mud that caused by the landslide. Even though it was only a three-day volunteer work, I felt like I was part of something that can make a difference to the world and our society. I do whatever I can to make an impact on the planet instead of just sitting in front of the television and “hope” things to improve. I believe this is what Jenson has been trying to tell us through this article.

Work Cited:

Jensen, Derrick. "Beyond Hope." 8th Paragraph Orion.