Hope is like headlights. It is not easy to drive without headlights in the dark. To be human is to be growing. We are all spiritually babies, and the most spiritually mature of us are the first to admit that fact. There are no grownups.
Life is a continual pregnancy, and death is like birth.
To live without hope is like being pregnant with a dead baby. Hope is the life of the soul. A soul without hope is a dead soul. The Russian novelist Gogol wrote a story with the haunting title Dead Souls. I find the phrase unforgettable, especially when I look carefully into the eyes of some street people and also some very famous people.