Living Without Hope Can Be Fatal.

[Theland]

Dad was a P.O.W. with the Japanese for three and a half years.
Kuala Lumpur, Changi Gaol and the infamous Burma Railway.
Beaten, starved and worked many to death.
He told me how he saw many who could lie down and die at will, having given up all hope.
Dad weighed five and a half stone when freed.
What kept him alive was stubbornness, hatred of the enemy, and just a tiny bit of hope that one day, somehow ............
He lived because he had hope.
So many people today live in a paradise compared to what Dad endured, yet mental illness and suicides are so prevalent because so many have no hope.
What are your comments on the value of hope, and the danger of a life without it?

[naomi24]

Life sometimes throws more at people than they can, at that time, cope with. That doesn’t mean that their lives were always without hope - or that they will be devoid of hope permanently in the future.

[Old_Geezer]

I hope you're right.

[ChillDoubt]

At the risk of sounding obtuse, I’m wondering what sort of kind and benevolent god would subject humans to such hardship, cruelty and deprivation?

Have you never asked yourself that question?

[rowanwitch]

It all depends what you hope for, when Dave was diagnosed I hoped for a cure, when the cancer came back I hoped for time to make memories, towards the end I hoped for a few good days, then at the end I just hoped he wouldn't see another morning. hope changes in line with expectation. Now I no longer hope I accept or fight depending on what life throws at me. What could I hope for?

[pixie374]

I think you are comparing two different things. Your dad's situation was obviously horrendous. But people don't necessarily get depression because they have no hope. It's often the other way around.

[rowanwitch]

Depression stops you imagining a better tomorrow. That's what hope is.

[Canary42]

According to POTUS your Dad was a loser - to me he appears as a very brave man indeed. To hold out hope under such appalling conditions is stoicism of the highest kind, worthy of the greatest admiration. You must be very proud of him.

[allenlondon]

Hope is sometimes all there is left.

I tell my loved one that when she gets out of hospital, I will take care of her.

She tells me she looks forward to coming home.

What else can we do?

[naomi24]

Canary, //According to POTUS your Dad was a loser //

Why do you say that? Can you give me the quote?

[Peter Pedant]

I salute your dad
they were terribly badly treated
all the pows were gonna be massacred in Sep 1945 as their captors cdnt understand how the Americans knew so much about - well everything....so- kill the spies - simples

[Peter Pedant]

// Canary, //According to POTUS your Dad was a loser //
Why do you say that? Can you give me the quote?

yup easy one again
The greatest man on earth cut a visit to the american cemetery in Paree and went shopping in said gay Paree - referring to the men in the cemetery as losers


Trump passed on visit to WWI cemetery near Paris, called US ...www.france24.com › France 24 › Americas
4 Sep 2020 — US President Donald Trump referred to US Marines buried in a WWI cemetery in France as "losers" and "suckers" for getting killed in action,

Naomi comments - foo dat just false news again
yeah yeah
well anyway you wanted a ref
( no not dat ref etc etc)

[retrocop]

I think he was referring to a living political rival who was a Nam POW.

[retrocop]

Make your own mind up as to the truth of all this.



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-called-veterans-pows-losers-suckers-top-military-leaders-say/ar-BB18IHCA

[naomi24]

Still waiting for Canary to respond.

PP, your brain has run amok again.

[brainiac]

naomi, here's one occasion Trump called John McCain - who was a much-garlanded Vietnam veteran - 'a loser', because he was captured, and spent many years in captivity. Despicable.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/video-donald-trump-john-mccain-loser-a4540421.html

[Barsel]

Theland, did your Dad survive because he had hope, faith and belief?
I think there can be danger to life living without hope.

[naomi24]

Indeed, Brainiac. When political gloves are off it’s often despicable - as is Canary’s manufactured mud which he spreads regularly and liberally.

[gness]

Good post, Brainiac. I did think though that most people knew how many times Trump used the word loser for those who died or were captured. Obviously not.

[tonyav]

Mmmmm, how come Trump didn't serve in Vietnam !

[gness]

Money, Tony. Money.