I am hope

"What the shit is he talking about?"

That (or something similar) may have been running through your mind ever since you first read my 'Alter ego' section on the top right of the page.

If you've been wondering what's the deal behind that but never bothered to ask, this has been a long time coming but wait no longer, it's finally here, my explanation for it.

It's actually from the pages of 'The Sandman', my favourite graphic novel. It's an extract (the ending actually) of a conversation between Morpheus and Choronzon.

To shed some light on the background of the conversation, The Sandman (a.k.a. Morpheus, Dreamlord), who is essentially the anthropomorphic manifestation of dreams, travels to Hell to regain possession of an item of his which has fallen into the hands of Choronzon, a demon and duke of Hell. In order to take back what is his, he needs to play and win a game of 'Reality', which is a verbal game. Losing will cause him to be a slave of Hell for all eternity.

It's a bit hard to explain how the game works, but you should be able to understand it from the full conversation between them, which I will quote below.

------------

CHORONZON: I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler.

MORPHEUS: I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing.

CHORONZON: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.

MORPHEUS: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.

CHORONZON: I am a snake, spider-devouring, poison-toothed.

MORPHEUS: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy footed.

CHORONZON: I am an anthrax, butcher, bacterium, warm-life destroying.

MORPHEUS: I am a world, space-floating, life nurturing.

CHORONZON: I am a nova, all-exploding... planet-cremating.

MORPHEUS: I am the Universe -- all things encompassing, all life embracing.

CHORONZON: I am Anti-Life, the Beast of Judgement. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds... of everything. Sss. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?

MORPHEUS: I am hope.

---------------

Choronzon had no reply to that, and Morpheus won.

What I really like about it is that it shows how powerful hope is, that it's virtually impossible to find anything that can defeat hope.

It also says a lot about what each of them personifies. Choronzon is a demon, and basically the dark at the end of everything, while Morpheus (who is the anthropomorphization of dream) is basically hope, as hope is quite closely connected to a person's dreams.

Which brings me to the lyrics of the song 'Forever Young' by Alphaville. There's a part of the lyrics which says,

"Hoping for the best but expecting the worst"

which I think is very sensible advice. Heh.