The Audacity of Hope

Earlier this year, I saw Barack Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope". Although I haven't read the book yet, the title struck me as incredibly powerful and bold.

In life, we always have a choice when we are faced with situations. I often find my choices lean toward fear, doubt and worry due my loss of control and lack of trust in God.
In 1 Corinthians 13, there are three other choices to life: faith, hope and love. When you compared both the negative and positive choices, they are actually opposites:
- faith / doubt
- hope / worry
- love / fear

When I think about it, doubt, worry and fear do not draw you to God but actually prevent you from fully living the blessings of life. That is why I liked the word "audacity" because it flies in the face of negativity. The definition of audacity is "boldness or daring, esp. with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions."

I want the audacity to hope in the face of life's uncertainties and challenges. Hope is what makes us human. I would rather live with disappointment than to never choose hope.

Being asked for ID

During my life, I have always looked younger than my actual age. In my twenties, it bothered me because I wanted to be taken seriously in my career. However, in my thirties as I begin to notice more wrinkles and gray hairs, I actually want to look younger than my age. Despite the Garnier Nutrisse #30 to color my hair or Clinique cream to smooth the wrinkles, I was wondering if my youthful looks were beginning to fade. In fact, just the other day, I was "bemoaning" to a friend that I hadn't been asked for ID since I was 29. But today, when I bought a bottle of wine for a dinner party and I was asked for ID. This request filled me with great joy!

However, the situation begs the question - why, for our first 30 years of life, do we want to look older than we are and after 30, we want to hang on to our youthful looks? It seems society is a great hurry to grow up but not in a hurry to grow old. When I look at teens now, they seem so much older than when I was their age. Even 9 or 10 year old girls are dressing more grown-up than ever before. Yet, some women in their 30's and 40's are dressing like teen-agers and showing a desperation of staying young. Since our society celebrates youth and marginalizes the elderly, I understand why people want to stay young. There is age-ism on both ends of the spectrum...either we are too young or too old.

The ironic thing is that I love being in my 30's. I am confident about who I am despite other people's opinions. I am entering the best years of my life (so far) and I wouldn't go back in time even if you paid me. I need to worry less about looking older and just concentrate on living a full life with joy.



The whole Dove campaign for real beauty actually inspires me (http://www.dove.ca/beauty/). If you haven't taken a look at the conversation they started about female beauty and age, you should take a look at their website.



To end the blog off, here are some quotes on aging:


I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel. - Elizabeth Arden


None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. - Henry David Thoreau


Live your life and forget your age. - Norman Vincent Peale


Wrinkles merely indicate where the smiles have been. - unknown


It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years that counts. - Adlai Stevenson