Hope, a Myth Reawakened

By Lillian Moats

Springing from ancient Greek mythology, HOPE, A MYTH REAWAKENED invites the reader on a journey that is both epic in scope and deeply intimate in the questions it prompts us to ask ourselves about the nature of hope in a fragile world.

Both a love story and a modern philosophical investigation, even the essential question of who is narrating the story draws the reader in. We take this journey on the wings of allegorical figures Hope and Despair, as we see through their eyes millennia of human love and loss, and confront today's pressing and personal questions.

As with her four previous books, Lillian Moats asks of her reader a quiet attentiveness, and amply pays back that gift. The rhythms of her writing propel us through this timely allegory, in which we meet characters wholly familiar to us, yet encounter them in ourselves as if for the first time. Full of suspense and insight, this book will speak to readers who think about a world in crisis, about the meaning of life and death, and who seek authentic hope in an age of denial.

This is the 5th book by Lillian Moats, writer, artist, and filmmaker.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9780966957662

Book preview

Pam

A NOTE OF INTRODUCTION

At this moment in history we find ourselves well beyond the consolation offered by the proverbial Chinese sentiment that we might live in interesting times. Ours is rather a time of terror, a time when natural systems and social systems are collapsing before our very eyes, a time when optimism has become a symptom of delusion. Hope is elusive, even in the best of times, but among the informed of our age it is nearly unimaginable. Yet we know deep down that there is no hope without Hope.

Lillian Moats aspires to reawaken in us a sense of hope in an age dominated by confusion, trepidation and despair. Her allegory seduces readers into serious reflections on the nature and sources of hope. The language herein is inviting, the insights are abundant, and the suspense is captivating. Perhaps you will detect, as I did, hints of Dante and Plato as the author engages Hope and Despair in constructive dialogue. This book is inspiring, and you are to be envied if you can find something better to do than to read it.

Loyal Rue

Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Religion

Luther College

PREFACE

If you have picked up this little book and thumbed through a few pages, the arrangement of lines might prompt you to regard it as poetry; I don’t think of it as such. The format reflects the writing process I use to remind myself to be concise and attend to the rhythm of language. If I were reading aloud to you (which would be fun for me since I’m a one-to-one person) I would not pause to indicate line breaks as poets often do. So be my guest and read right through.

On a deeper plane, where did the idea of such a book come from? Most of us speak of hope frequently—cheerfully, nervously or fervently—and yet in our more somber moods we ask ourselves and each other, Is there any hope? I am one who has struggled hard with that question, especially in the last decade or so as I’ve become more painfully conscious of the condition of our world.

But perhaps my unease, and yours if you feel it, may be as old as humanity. This is what led me to turn to a classical myth and let my own allegorical extension of it reach into the present. The ancient Greeks expressed the conundrum of hope in the multiple and contradictory myths of a fateful gift from the gods to the first humans.

The gift was contained in a storage jar or urn. (In the Pandora myth it was translated as box centuries later). Did this gift from the gods contain evils as collective punishment, or blessings? Who let the contents escape? The first woman, cunning and curious, or a foolish man?

Hope is a central theme in these ancient myths, for in each rendition it is the only element not released from the jar. Scholars still debate whether hope’s perpetual containment conveys optimism or pessimism.

HOPE, a Myth Reawakened is an invitation to join me in an allegorical adventure, grappling with the age-old question that has taken on pressing relevance in our contemporary lives: Is there hope for the world?

Lillian Moats

2015

I. HOPE, FORLORN

Now that I’ve grown in understanding,

I will tell you my mother’s story:

hers was the longest solitary confinement

in the history of the world.

Held without charge, without recourse

to any system of justice, still she could not die.

Forlorn. How could she have been otherwise?

Yet, I cannot say my mother was without hope

for she is Hope. She does not know whose hand

pried off the lid—the roof of her