The Possibility of Good

 Anxiety entails a kind of uncertainty about the future and often a consideration of what could go wrong. It transforms possibility into something to be feared. Wouldn’t it be better if the future were certain? If there were no possibilities at all, but we knew exactly what was going to happen? For some this might sound like a boring kind of life – no mystery, no unpredictability. For others, however, this might sound like a safe and secure way to live.

    If there were no possibilities, then we could be certain about what is going to happen. It may not be something good, but as long as we know for sure what is going to happen, we can prepare for it. If we could just know for sure, our anxieties might finally shut up. Anxiety feeds off of uncertainty and yearns for control. Sometimes it can be a productive force to encourage us to prepare for possibilities, but all too often it gets out of hand. Anxiety takes control of the reins, in a fatal attempt to protect us from possibility.

    Hope stands in stark contrast to anxiety. Hope, like anxiety, entails a kind of uncertainty about the future. However, it involves a consideration of what could go right – the possibility of good. Is it possible that the future holds the possibility of good outcomes, just as much as neutral or bad outcomes? 

    Our brains seem convinced that the possibility of bad is more likely than the possibility of good. Anxiety feels natural; hope requires a special kind of effort. We have to suspend our natural bias to focus on what could go wrong, and allow ourselves to consider that the future may in fact hold the possibility of good. And why shouldn’t it? Is it that fate has determined our misery? Do our lives unfold before us only to end in tragedy. Why can we not hope for the possibility of good?