Thursday, September 28, 2006

In our darkest hour

It is in our darkest hour that we need to stay strong. It is in our darkest hour that we must not lose faith.

This notion is very powerful and appealing. I find myself, as I’m watching a movie, during its darkest hour, during the climax of the plot, I find myself beseeching the protagonist not to sway from the course, to keep the faith and to stay strong in the darkest hour. But that’s just in the movies where you know that a story has a beginning, middle and an end. It’s just in the movies that you know that this is truly the darkest hour. It’s only in the movies where heroes stay strong and every thing turns out okay. It’s only in a story where the writer can choose how it ends and can give the characters strength and faith. Only in a story can we be so demanding but only because we’re well aware how stories are.

But what of real life? Do we even recognize our darkest hour when it arrives? Do we know that things will turn out okay? Do we know that our convictions are correct enough to hold on to? Do we even know how long our hour will last?

When it comes to real life, I probably won’t be as motivated as the characters in a story. I’ll probably lose faith, and probably things won’t turn out alright.

The truth is that we’re blinded in our darkest hour and we’re usually so alone and it doesn’t feel like someone is watching us beseeching us to stay strong. We’re all alone and it doesn’t seem that everything will turn out okay. We’re all alone and we don’t know if this is the middle or if it’s the end.

Yet with all the discrepancies between stories and real life, I still think that it’s worth something to hang on in your darkest hour. It’s worth something to have faith and believe that this too shall pass. It’s worth something to be a hero even if just to yourself.

It’s worth something to endure and believe that in great heat, gold sublimes. I think that those who endure during their darkest hour are the better metals and that their endurance purifies them.

I know it’s easy to preach, just spurt out those words. I also know that they mean too little to someone in his darkest hour because they’re just words, and words cannot know the details of that hour and words don’t know its future. I know how hard it is to ask people to keep the faith during their darkest hour, I know it’s hard to ask people to find strength in their darkest hour and I know it’s hard to convince people that someone cares about their darkest hour.

But I have to say, for what it’s worth, that it’s always appealing to see someone stay the course. It’s inspirational to see it in the stories but powerfully moving to see it in real life. It’s worth something… It has to be.

So I send this out to those who feel that this could be their darkest hour, but most of all I send this out to me for when I’m discouraged while in my darkest hour…

8 comments:

Veeeva said...

i remember when my dad died...i sorta became like an angry beast..

like u said its easy to preach...

N said...

yeah but you have two kinds of preachers, ones who can't tell their asses from their armpits and have nothing better to do, and ones who don't speak often, yet they are almost always feeling someone else's anxiety.

thanks Will :)

Wael Eskandar said...

still breathing : Yes i'm not saying everyone can do it, and I think it's your right to be an angry beast, but how you choose to turn out .. and how much you lose of yourself is up to you still..

n : no problem :)

Dee-Vine said...

'It’s worth something… It has to be.'
i really want to believe this.

and finding someone who truly does care about your darkest hour and is willing to just be there, really makes all the difference..

Wael Eskandar said...

dee-vine: I'm a skeptic but something inside me tells me that it has to be worth something.. I just can't prove it well enough..

I'm sure that people care about our darkest hours.. but in the dark we just might not see it..

Cindrella said...

If we managed to act strongly in our darkest hour or let's say in dark hour in general is when we learn from this experience and move to a higher level of strength. If it were not for my dark hours, I would never have been the person i am now and i would never have had my inner strength that gave me much courage.
Nice post BTW and i am impressed to know you have written this almost five years ago :)

Zizo said...

You know, this article just came on time for me. Well done, Will E.

DiDo said...

I need to keep my pessimism to myself.Keep it locked,not sharing it.
We must keep on track not deviating from our cause.Success is on step closer.

Great Article Will E.