The consonant H harbors some of the most juxtaposed words in the English language. On one spectrum there is the barbaric H. The banal needs of a primitive species. Words like hurt, hell, haughty, harass, and hate. Words that preach a message of intolerance, their very existence tainting the the context they are used in. Yet like all things in life, H is not merely an instrument of hatred. It’s other spectrum glows as bright as this one is voided dark. Words like heaven, help, but most of all, hope.

That one syllable word defines the letter. Wiping away all the hurt and hatred in the its syllabic soul. The world is a dark one, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and countless other displays of hell attest to this. Yet even in the darkness of the Rwandan Genocide hope could endure in the shape of a hotel harboring refugees. In Bosnia as the picture of a mother shielding her infant girl from a callously dropped bomb. In Darfur as amnesty workers embrace refugees in camps.

For all the pain in the world hope can still endure. For all the words that scar the letter H. Hope repels them. Hope is the greatest word in the English language. It is the most enduring one. The most persistent one. And the most understood one. Without hope the letter H would be bleak indeed.Without hope the world would be one shrouded in darkness with a race of primitives submitting to the darkness of past crimes. Yet this is not the case, and it need not ever be the case.

As long as hope endures.

Humanity will not be without light.

In my life I hold hope dear to me. It is with hope that I speak and with hope that I write. That like the letter which leads it. We may all begin to see that darkness need not necessitate the lack of goodness. That hatred need not mean the lack of love. That life need not be without joy. So long as we have hope.