Hope

Is it just me, or despite the recession and the state of the world, do people seem extra-optimistic about life? It seems that I, like many others (obviously not counting those who have just lost their jobs or live in war-stricken countries or under dictatorships), am starting off 2009 with a sense of hope. Of course this is a perfectly normal state of mind in which to begin a new year, but I don't know.. things seem different this time.. Is it a personal thing, is it Obama, or has the world just got so scary that all we can do is hope? Anyway, here are some 'hopeful' images.

Edward Hopper, Rooms by the Sea, I think. I love him, but think his paintings are often more gloomy than hopeful, this one feels extremely hopeful though - the open door, the light coming in...

A cute drawing by illustrator Mark Johns



Hope for some comes in a bottle. I probably would never have included this in a post about hope if it weren't for my recent medical escapades.



Slightly clichéd it may be, but this one had to go in.

Pandora's Box by Andrew Junge

A song for hope. I cannot for the life of me find the original and brilliant version by Sam Cooke (apparently written by him in response to hearing Bob Dylan's The answer is blowing in the wind, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement in the states) - nor can I embed the video for some reason, but here's a link to the Al Green version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ybutf-1J7s&feature=related

p.s. I just remembered that Nadia means hope in Russian, how nice :-)