I hope you're not (just) hoping for health care reform

Some months ago I was writing about Prometheus and Pandora and the gift of fire. One of the pieces of that myth that I find so intriguing (and useful) is the contradictory image of "hope." Is hope a panacea or a motivator, a luxury or an existential necessity?

Here's the Greek myth. Prometheus, our divine benefactor, had sealed up all of the evils and suffering in the cosmos in a great clay jar. The first men were living the easy life, free of care, with the fruit falling off the vine. But then Pandora came along. There are some interesting parallels with the Christian myth of Adam and Eve--- man needs woman to be complete but she brings him down (that part is debatable, depending on your estimation of the value of consciousness and human creativity). In any event, Pandora was full of wile and guile and utterly charming. She was also greedy and curious. One day she sidled up to the great jar, pried off the lid, and let out a flock of troubles. Poverty, worry, sickness, hard work, nightmares, competition, bad art, and death, which now took many gruesome forms and no longer came as just a blissful sleep. Pandora slammed the lid back down but it was too late.

Hope was also in that great clay jar. In one version of the story, Hope is trapped under the rim and still flutters alone in the jar. In another version Hope escapes too, which seems probable given how much we hear about hope and talk about hope and pass it back and forth. Hope can bring a little light when times get dark, but is that all? Should we trust Hope? Why was Hope in that great clay jar with all of the other evils of the world? In our current moment, what does it mean to elect a President with a mantra of hope?

Check out Naomi Klein's vocabulary of "Hope"  for a suggestion or two. Stop hoping, she says, and start demanding. Let's start with the public option and move on from there. If you're merely "hoping" and have not contacted your members of Congress to insist that they support the President, I encourage you to do so. The House victory is a start but the Senate will be more difficult and the wrangling is far from over. Isn't dependable health insurance sturdier than the "hope" that you won't get sick?