The hope of a rat

Hope is the elusive subject that artists, authors, and philosophers have tried to capture in grand definitions. It permeates literature, religion, and every fiber of our lives. There was a study done by Harvard graduate Kurt Richter, who eventually went on to work at Johns Hopkins, that tested how long that rats could swim in a high-sided bucket. The average length a rat could swim was about fifteen minutes. When rescued just before drowning, they’d dry it and rest it briefly before returning it to the bucket, it was able to swim for an average of sixty hours. When it knew that it could be saved, the rat’s desire to survive increased exponentially.

Life is a constant struggle against outside elements and ourselves, how we respond to struggles, trauma, and disappointment. We are just as likely to succumb to ourselves as we are to outside pressure, jeopardizing our ability to cope with hardships as our beatdowns accumulate. When we lose sight of that hope, our will to fight fades. It’s important to remember that if God can give a rat the will to survive, He can give us the means to succeed. It’s a cliche to say that life isn’t fair, and we should expect as much. We will fail, stumble, falter, and land on our face time and time again. That’s to be expected, we are tested by ourselves and by others, but without that hope, we will never rise above our hurt and our misery. Elevating ourselves is how we grow, we use that hope to push us out of buckets to achieve new potentials.