According to Henri: “One way of describing the way to the light is to call it a slow conversion from wishes to hope. You wish ‘that’, you hope ‘in’.” He explains that wishes are for concrete objects while hope is open ended and we believe we can fulfill our promises. “Therefore, the conversion from wishes to hope asks for a slow process of disengagement in which we are willing to detach ourselves from many little and big things of the moment and open ourselves to the future,” states Nouwen. Robert Kastenbaum in, “Theories of Human Aging:The Search for a Conceptual Framework”, states: “this conversion does not take place when someone is labeled ‘old’ by society. The disengagement which makes hope possible, ‘requires a changed perception of time and death around mid-life.” Are you hopeful about growing old?
