More than logical
Drew and Matt at the FDR Memorial in Washington DC, December 2004
“If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope…” — Jacques Yves Cousteau
I’m a great fan of logic. My highest scores on the GRE and other standardized tests were always in the “analytical thinking” category. Nevertheless, I agree with Cousteau that life would be bleak indeed if we were bound by the limits of our own reasoning, which is often flawed or incomplete.
This is not to imply that faith and hope are exclusive of reason; it simply means that logic will only take us so far. In times of sorrow or despair, I’ve found that logic often reinforces my grief, especially when there are overwhelming and unavoidable circumstances playing havoc with my soul. At such times, faith and hope become essential to survival.
Beyond mere survival, however, faith and hope provide the energy and incentive to keep moving forward through an uncertain future. As Cousteau suggests, these qualities have enabled progress throughout human history, and will continue to be indispensable.
If you are facing difficulties or sorrows today, I wish you the faith and hope to look beyond the bleak realities that trouble you, and to believe that better days lie ahead. Reach out for the prayers and encouragement of others, here or elsewhere, and offer your support to people you know who may be struggling. Together, we can overcome.
This post was originally published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: against the odds, belief, determination, encouragement, faith, history, hope, logic, optimism, perseverance, prayers, progress, reason, survival
Defeat Despair 
Good morning, Julia! Thank you for this wonderfully encouraging post.
I was not at all surprised to read that your analytical thinking is top-notch. It’s one of my strengths, too, for which I’m ever grateful.
Have a lovely day!
Susan, we’re lucky to have that skill, as long as it doesn’t run away with us. Some things defy logic, and overthinking is often a problem for me. But as you say, I’m mostly grateful to be wired that way. It helps in countless small ways every day.