Will and Hope

The power of the will. 

I am always amazed by it. It’s glorious in fact as how ‘WILL’ can turn tides, shifting impossible feats to possible achievements. To change weaknesses to strengths require a lot of it. 

Human beings have this insurmountable potent power within them that isn’t impossible to achieve as long as the will is there. Just imagine the limitless possibilities one can attain, the power once can muster, ah sweet will.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day deeply thinking while watching the Green Lantern Animated Series. Literally, I was astounded with the development of the story. So we know that the power rings of the GLs are energized by WILL (as manifested by the green aura). 

With it (will), they are able to create physical forms of anything that their mind can visualize. Constructs as they call it, they are able to make forms and appear in the physical plane through thinking. 

Suddenly, a thought hit me. Humans are like these I guess, our will can create any constructed fantasy as long as we wish for it. We can be anything we want to be, and perhaps, this is what makes Hal Jordan special among all the other GLs. His humanity is what gives him unlimited potential for the green aura, his undying will never fails him even in the most desperate and somewhat dying moments. 

Will is always a result of reason, and reason is not infallible. Most of the times, it’s reason that makes things complicated and destructive. In as much as it is a gift, it is as well a really big curse. I noticed that when the GLs were already fighting the red lanterns, they were no match to them. 

The red lanterns are fueled up by a stronger power: hatred, vengeance and anger. The irrationality of these emotions are simpler, more passionate and easier to summon than reason. 

Anger can shatter reason effortlessly, and the red constructs can easily slice up the green aura. The battles in the TV show was really one sided, as it can be seen that the GLS have no fighting chance against the RLs. 

As the story went on, I was wondering how the heck can WILL solely overcome this battle? I can’t help but compare myself with the heroes in a story I am reading or in a TV show I am watching. It’s easier to get angry and be violent when people take so much away from you. 

Sometimes, it’s tempting to think of a righteous kind of vengeance, but is there really such a thing as 'righteous' vengeance? Revenge will always be revenge - fueled by hatred.

I do feel the battle of the GLS and the RLS within me, and in this moment of war with my thoughts, reason unanimously loses. I have then realized that ‘will’ can’t do it alone, which I believe is what the guardians (GL bosses) failed to see. 

They rely too much on reason and they did not take into consideration that emotions play an important role in decision making. Emotions are more fiery and passionate while reason are always, err... 'reasonable' (logical). 

However, logic can only provide a straight line from point A to B, which resulted to the Guardian's shameful actions, and eventually, they hid all their failures and mistakes into the forgotten zone. 

As I was trying to make connections and make sense out of the story, I told myself that I won’t be like this. I will never forget and most especially I won’t hide these failures. I have to will myself to overcome the crap surrounding me since there will always be this little spark that can amplify  ones will.

As the story progressed, it was obvious that the GLs were already losing. Then here comes a new character by the name: Saint Walker – a stunningly calm guy (alien) who fights with serenity and grace. His methods in fighting is so epic! he is swaying with the wind, and was flowing with the movements of the enemy. 

Anyway, I almost forgot him as he only appeared in one episode and haven’t realized what his role really was. During the Final episode, when there were thousands of Red Lanterns and hundreds of armada ships going to attack the OWA (Green Lantern Base) there’s only one GL (Killowog) who is going defend the fortress. That’s the time when Saint Walker reappeared. 

When all hope seems to be lost, (one GL is no match with one RL, what more with thousands of it?) he appeared as a Blue Lantern, and guess what is the source of his power? HOPE!

With hope, the will of Killowog was supercharged and he was able to protect and defend the warpzone going to OWA with the help of hope. 

Will is useless if the person loses hope. Will and Hope must come together. No matter how pathetic your current situation is, with hope, it can spark the will in a person to remain standing up (or if down, pushes you to stand up right away.) I never fully comprehended how hope can be such a surprising thing.

I deceptively believed that I am a willful person and that I can achieve everything through reasoning. But the problem with WILL alone is that you end up having nothing but confidence. It’s sometimes good be confident but the faulty thing about the ego is that sometimes, you create an image of yourself where your abilities can no longer cope with your aims and goals, then you end up being short – which once more adds up to depression and sadness. 

Will is never humble and it’s time to look for something else that should pull our irrational confidence down to earth. Hope does that. But in an equal perspective, hope must also be coupled with WILL since hope alone can lead to blind faith. Or does it?

To test this fudging crazy ass theory I'm having, I thought of doing another experiment in an attempt to clarify things and eventually change myself. (I also decided to change my hobbies) and as of the moment, I am now into planting – anyways, I planted some rare flower seeds (which was given to me by my wife’s aunt) and according to the pack, it only grows in hot places. 

I know it sounds dumb, but I breathed hope on it. Let’s see if the will of the flower to survive can overcome the unfit conditions in my place. With my hope and the flowers’ will to survive, I’ll wait for 8 days and see, if it will spark up hope back to me.

and I will sing hope to it :)