Two weeks ago I quoted the following passage from "The Silk Roads: A New History of the World" written by Peter Frankopan:

"Although Europeans might have thought they were discovering primitive civilisations and that this was why they could dominate them, the truth was that it was the relentless advances in weapons, warfare and tactics that laid the basis for the success of the west... ...The great irony, then, was that although Europe experienced a glorious Golden Age, producing flourishing art and literature and leaps of scientific endeavour, it was forged by violence."

This week I read the following passage in a different book, continuing the thought above:

"...it is wrong to claim our present circumstance---no matter how improved---as the redemption for the lives of people who never asked for the posthumous, untouchable glory of dying for their children. Our triumphs can never compensate for this. Perhaps our triumphs are not even the point. Perhaps struggle is all we have because the god of history is an atheist, and nothing about this world is meant to be. So you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope."

I will identify the book and the author further along in my thought. First I want to focus on Why "This is not despair."

I believe that Hope, though not always an unnecessary delusion, is the stationary, mental construct one builds around each thought, whether or not that thought leads to action.

I believe that actions must be thoughtful.

I believe that Struggle refers to an individual thought breaking free from hope and moving forward as action.

Conversely, I believe that those thoughts that remain trapped in hope will ultimately curdle and manifest as despair or shrivel and remain merely as a brittle shell.

And if Despair is (by definition) the loss of Hope before a thought shrivels, I believe this implies that Despair is also the passive realization of the necessity of action.

So it follows that when this knowing (of the necessity of action) becomes the impetus for Struggle and the consequent breaking free, this evolution (from thought to action) cannot be Despair; (again, because by definition, Despair is passive, unmoving, paralyzing and helpless).

In previous written thought I have alluded to an "active hope." I believe what I have previously meant by "active hope" is this reasoned struggle to combat despair.

And what of a general despair over circumstance beyond one's control? If one is paying attention, this is an ever-present possibility. I believe I can combat this potential in the same way the author of the passage above suggests: I "must wake up each morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable." By doing so, I am forced to break free and struggle so I am not trapped in the hope of promise or the promise of hope. And by struggling each day, I am rejecting widespread despair by working my way from circumstantial despair to reasoned action. And through this struggle, I am perpetuating struggle. If I do not struggle daily, I will forget how.

This week I have struggled. This week I have experienced a small triumph. This week I have teetered on the edge of despair. This week I have struggled.

All learning comes too late
...for some circumstance.

Yet all learning is applicable to all moments
...past, present and future.

So though I may feel I have come too late to Ta-Nehisi Coates---(the author of "Between the World and Me" from which the quoted passage above was taken)---I am actively grateful for this new learning.

I am not finished.

I believe that some accomplished architects of Hope are able to project their mental constructs in such a way that they do not appear to be the brittle shell they actually are.

I believe that to truly break free from Hope and struggle forward, firstly one's mental construct must be one's own, and secondly one must not forget to destroy that construct on their way forward.

I believe there are far too many individuals trusting the deceptive stability of far too many brittle shells.

I believe the evolution from Hope to Struggle must be fluid, without hesitation, and practiced daily.