Hope Is an Obstacle

What I learned from Oliver Burkeman’s new book “Four Thousand Weeks”

Times are hard. We’ve screwed up the climate and democracy in ways that are too complex to untangle in any satisfying amount of time. The Supreme Court is not going to protect us—in fact, it’s grabbing its guns and coming after us, too.

So it’s hard to remain hopeful, but that’s the wrong goal. What comes after hope is the good stuff. Here’s a secret: Breaking up with hope opens the door to true joy and strength.

We’ve been gaslighted into believing that hope is all powerful. It is not. Regarding cancer, everyone tells you that “positive thinking” is the ticket back to health, piling the burden of toxic positivity on the people already facing a rough time. Caitlin Flanagan’s recent Atlantic article on this topic opened the windows and let in the light. Repeat after me: Positive thinking does not impact health outcomes. By all means, continue to think positive if that’s who you are. But don’t feel pressure to don the suffocating cloak of positivity if it’s just not your style. Be who you are meant to be, and don’t let anyone force you into becoming an optimistic caricature of your true self.

We actually don’t need hope. What we need is joy and strength, and waiting around for hope often gets in the way. Hope is an…