An account of events, surrounding desire accompanied by a belief in fulfilment. This is what is a story of hope is. Did that definition move you to tears? Are you now standing up, waving your shirt above your head like a flag, enlightened and filled with newfound inspiration? Stories of hope can have these affects on people, which is why they permeate. So why is the definition of the term less impactful than the substance at hand?
I will get to that in a second, but I want to take this opportunity to tell you about a book that I read when I was 10. I had borrowed it from the library, and it had a coral/black cover with the shadow of an African girl carrying a basket on her head. The sun was setting in the distance. The inside of the cover page had the ghost of a booger stain. It was partly fictional and partly not, telling the alternating stories of Salva Dut (true) and Nya (fictionalised).
Salva Dut was born in a rural village in southwestern Sudan to the Dinka tribe. At 11 years old, the Sudanese Civil War reached his village and separated Salva from his family. He lead 1500 boys, famously known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, on their journey by foot to seek safety in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. After living in refugee camps for 10 years, Salva was given the opportunity to move to the United States, where he was embraced by a family in Rochester, New York. Several years later, Salva learned that his father was still alive in Southern Sudan but was suffering with a disease caused by waterborne parasites. His father’s illness inspired Salva to help both his father and his country by bringing clean water to those in need. This was the beginning of Water for South Sudan.
In 1990, while Salva was leading the Lost Boys of Sudan across a war-zone stretching hundreds of kilometres, Andrew Wiles was taking on a different challenge.
Fermat’s last theorem states that there are no positive integers for which xn + yn = zn when n is greater than 2. Pierre de Fermat proposed this in 1630. Now, the year is 1990 and conjecture remains unsolved. The semingly innocent problem continued to baffle mathematicians, philosophers, and basically everyone with a brain. Enter Yutaka Taniyama entered the picture with his show laces untied (he didn’t bother tying them – ever). Exit Yutaka Taniyama (he commit suicide and didn’t solve Fermat’s theorem)
The Taniyama-Shimura conjecture changed everything. It combined geometry with number theory, and it was pricelessly the discovery that would help Andrew Wiles finish his proof for the theorem. Wiles had been fascinated by the theorem ever since he had first heard of it, and spent his childhood trying to fill in the blanks. 40 years later and for the third time, he attempted to submit a proof for presentation. This time, it worked.
2.326 km South East, the Croatian War of Independence is escalating. The Yugoslav People’s Army invaded Dubrovnik, the largest southernmost Croatian city. 7.000 Serbian and Montenegrin troops were deployed with heavy artillery, the goal being to seize the historic city. Meanwhile, Croatia is still in an economic depression, a result of communism and war expenses. 50 Dubrovnik citizens were armed, the oldest of which was 58 and the youngest was 16. According to resources at the Homeland War Museum, 28 had experience with the light artillery available. They retreated to the Napoleonic era fortress on top of Mt Srđ, and the area remained secured for 38 days, until humanitarian aid and additional soldiers arrived.
What is the message to be gleaned from these stories? – Keep walking.
For Salva Dut, it was literal. For Andrew Wiles and the army of Dubrovnik it is figurative. When faced with adversity where your reaction makes or breaks the conclusion, do not think about the big picture. Think in terms of each step that you take.
Maybe that is why surviving is taboo. I think that the only thing that people fear more than facing a pain and dying is having to face pain and remember it. A lot of people live through adversity, but very few survive it. In order to survive it, you are innately changed and you experience a rebirth. You see the world upside down, or right side up seeing as you had it backwards beforehand. Every glass of water that you drink isn’t just the water that it was before, but it is a bigger part of the whole that it means as the blessing to be alive.
I wonder if any amount of storytelling can communicate the truth about survival. Is that actually what hope is? Can it be rational, or is it simply another facet of religion? Can you believe in a possibility while also doing so rationally? I don’t completely understand this yet, but I hope to soon.
