My Shawshank Has Been Redeemed
So, my first ever blog post, Superman’s Mute Canary, may have conveyed the idea that I am a skeptic when it comes to hope, or worse, that I’m one of those emo-cynical types we tail-end boomers are young enough to know about but too old to really understand. Like my parents were with Wacky Packages trading stickers.
Au contraire (that’s French for nuh-uh).
Remember the character of Andy, played by Tim Robbins, from Shawshank Redemption? He was friends with Red, played by Morgan Freeman. At one point, somewhere in the second reel I think (this is how we talk about movies in LA), Red takes exception to Andy’s seeming reliance on hope. Andy insists that they should not give up hope, while Red believes that hope, at least for men in prison, can leave you one beer shy of a six pack.
Andy chooses hope, clings to it and even appears mesmerized by it to the point that his pals think he might be out of his tree and about to commit suicide. But Andy isn’t bonkers, he channeling Warren Buffett, who said (didn’t you read my first blog post?) that HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY.
Andy not only has a strategy, he has a plan, a plan only the mind of Stephen King could dream up for escaping from prison. When Andy looks dreamily off into the distance and talks about hope he’s not talking about Chuck Norris repelling unexpectedly from a helicopter to sweep him up to freedom. He’s not talking about some uber-liberal member of the parole board who likes his dimples and lobbies for his release. And, he’s not talking about faith. His friend, Red, was talking about faith, I think. Not faith in God or heaven, but faith in anything around them to deliver freedom.
I’m not talking about faith. That is for another day, another blog, another world maybe. My point or my questions or the nails in my soapbox amount to this: Hope happens. Yes it does. Sometimes it’s the sun that does it, or the caffeine in your coffee. Whatever. It happens. So what? Then what? Unless it’s attached to something it is just a cheap high.
Not long after Andy escapes, Red is paroled and sent back out into the world where, despite his freedom, hope does not appear…until, he has a plan. The plan is accompanied by these words from Andy: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
But what isn’t said but is said by the movie is that hope never dies as long as you are moving toward, or not even toward but striving for the thing you hope for. Hope blossoms in Red because he has a plan. He has a strategy. Get on a bus and head for Mexico to find his friend.
No, hope is not a strategy Mr. Buffett, but a strategy can ignite hope. And that’s what I think about hope. Good feelings feel good, but get on the bus. Feeling hopeless, Mike? What’s the plan?
As he makes his way to Mexico on the bus, Red, who told Andy that hope can drive you crazy, says in voice over: “I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”