I have finally come to the conclusion that I am not as smart as I once thought I was. By disclosing this fact, I am not looking for empty flattery or reassurance of the contrary. It’s okay, I get it. I accept it. I am moving forward from this point with what I have to work with. With that in mind, this is the only piece of advice I have to give you: hang on. Hang on, hang in there, keep going. You find that hope that will float you into tomorrow and you cling to it for as long as you need to. It is hope that carries us to the other end of the day and whatever your hope looks like for you, protect it.

My grandma told my dad that we had an ancestor that spent time in Andersonville. This was a Confederate prisoner-of-war facility located in Georgia. He can’t remember which ancestor it was and I’m having trouble finding out who it was. In the meantime, I have been reading a biography of a POW who spent over a year as a prisoner. Spoiler alert, it was horrible. I am not going to go into details other than to say many prisoners died due to lack of proper nutrition. And that one sentence downplays it quite a bit.

The book I’m reading is Andersonville by John McElroy. It is a free book available at https://books.apple.com. Now, keep in mind, it was written by a POW so of course there certainly was a wrong and right side with the wrong side coming across as complete villains and buffoons.

But the main takeaway for me from this book is the importance of hope. For the author, if he knew how long he was going to be incarcerated with the deplorable conditions, he would have given up and ensured his own death. Instead, with each new wave of prisoners added to the crowded prison, news from the battlefield would spread amongst the prisoners. The older prisoners quizzing the new arrivals on news of an exchange. Surely, a prisoner exchange had to be in the works! An exchange or, better yet, an end to the war was the light at the end of the tunnel. There was always a hope of freedom so he kept hanging on.

It was that hope that helped him survive in the worst conditions imaginable. While death occurred on a daily basis all around him, he was eventually freed at the end of the war and lived a life which included a career and marriage.

Granted, he left with scars inside and out but he was able to leave. Something relatively few had the opportunity to do.

I think it’s safe to say that none of us reading this post are experiencing the same things he went through. But we all live in a day and all we can see is the current moment. Maybe that moment is bleak. Maybe that moment seems infinite with no end. Don’t let the moment deceive you. You keep hoping for whatever you need to get you to tomorrow. Never give up on the promise of tomorrow. You just keep hanging on.