Genuine and Authentic… And Censored
Our Community Listener Hillary (read her personal hope here) shares about her personal experience as she collected hopes on a road trip from California to Kansas:
I started out ecstatic. I was going on a road trip with a video camera, awesome Hope Chronicles stickers, and Community Listener cards in hand. I was on a mission!
Soon, however, I found myself feeling disappointed and rejected. For every four or so people I asked to share a hope, maybe one would agree. What was it? Was I not cute enough? Not friendly enough? Not clear enough in my description of what The Hope Chronicles was?
It was the people who agreed to share that shed light on a possible reason for the number of declines I received, which were too numerous to use the excuse of camera shyness. There seemed to be some reason or another that motivated them agree to a brief taping, but whatever that reason was, by the time I was ready to hit record, they were saying something along the lines of, “Hmmm, I don’t know what to share. Nothing seems that important. Well, I can’t say that or I’ll appear shallow.”
That seemed to be it!
People either a) don’t even know what they hope for, or b) seemed to have some understanding that their hopes for things like personal health and wealth are shallow and self-centered…and they don’t want to admit that on camera. Believe me, I heard my fair share of hopes that never made it on film. While what you see in the videos is, in fact, genuine and authentic, in many cases, you end up with a censored version of what the individuals are actually willing to share with the world, not the first things that came to mind.
It is not that it is a bad thing to hope for health and wealth, but there also seems to be an instinctual understanding that hope in that alone is insufficient.
So… I ask you as readers of this blog and visitors to this site, if I asked you today about what you hope for, what is it?
Do you hope for something that will fulfill? Do you hope for something that will last? Do you hope for something that will not disappoint? Do you hope for something that you are willing to share with others because you hope it for them, as well?
Hillary Mortenson
Community Listener — Wichita, KS
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Watch Andrea and Hillary’s Community Listening road trip
Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five
Tags: community listener, kansas, road trip
1 comment
Hi Hillary,
When I first met Sam and he asked me what I hope for, I spouted off something that I’m semi-proud of. I think it’s a good representation of who I am and how I want to be thought of. But the truth of the matter is that I went home and got out my journal and began to actually think about what I hope for. Really think. I’ve filled pages and pages since then. But my first try was embarrassing. I thought I was being so honest, and transparent with my journal, but when I went back and read it I saw a self-absorbed even self-obsessed me reflected in my hopes. So I kept journalling, and as I continued there was more… just as genuine, not quite as shallow. At this point I think I could talk for days without a break about the hopes I identify with.
“While there’s life, there’s hope.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
Today, I hope that the people you talked to on your road trip have, like me, been triggered to actively hope again. I hope that the people you talked to begin to move, intentionally, in the direction of their hopes.