'Hope is the last thing that dies,’ as the saying goes. This saying means that as long as there is something alive on this planet, there is hope. As long as we are alive, as long as our faith, ambitions, art and calling are active, there is hope.
Considering the circumstances, we may be satisfied with the prospect of returning to ‘normality’ once the pandemic gives way. Yes, what a blessing it will be to dance, play, sing, act freely again, without restrictions and fear! We will look at each other with a sigh of relief that the pandemic is over. The minus of many dreary months will be equalized, and we can resume what we used to do. But do we really want to arrive at ‘zero’ again? Hope can carry us much further!
Returning to normality equals zero progress, and we should ask ourselves: Will the crisis change nothing? Amidst all the destruction, there is hope that, first and foremost, the followers of Christ will have had the astuteness of mind to take hold of blessings in disguise and seize these unexpected opportunities for a change of heart, bringing a revitalisation of our relationship with God and a redefinition of our art.
Hope will not bring us back to normality. It is much more ambitious. It fills us with the desire that things will be positively different when the dark cloud lifts. With new eyes and maybe even a feeling of having been 'refined,' will we continue along our path as artists? Some of us will have undergone a severe identity crisis, but there is one thing we should never forget: those who are torn to pieces are destined to be reassembled in greater beauty. Some will have suffered from this dire inner hermitism. But this is also the place we hear the ‘still small voice’ of God that we miss hearing in the hullabaloo of pandemic-free happi ness. Some will have struggled with new techniques and media and realized later how much their horizons were widened.
Unlike us, hope is not satisfied with returning to our favourite restaurant, traveling to our previous holiday destination, returning to the same old challenges, struggling with the same old ‘me.’ Hope longs for lasting, beautiful change. And as long as hope is a living thing, there will be change, and as long as that change is a living thing, there will be hope.