You couldn't scroll far on social media before coming across #hopefor_ (insert your favourite charity or crowdfunding cause).

But even before the pandemic, the word 'hope' was so ubiquitous we couldn't have a polite conversation without it. Since then, the virus has turned our lives upside down. When I started working on this story, the world hadn't heard of COVID-19. Does hope help us or harm us? Is it an illusion or a virtue? Throughout history and across disciplines, the concept has continued to raise questions. Millenniums later, we still can't agree on the meaning and role - even the definition - of hope. If hope is the last of the evils, why did it get stuck? On the other hand, if hope is the remedy for evil, maybe it was being kept safe for us. But how many of us remember the part where, after all the other ills of the world escape, hope gets stuck in the box and remains behind? I sure didn't.Įven today, philosophers debate the meaning of that detail. She was created by Zeus to blight humans and punish their creator, Prometheus, for giving them fire. Things like disease and pestilence were sent down as a 'gift' with Pandora, the first woman. Most of us know the myth of Pandora's box as the story the ancient Greeks told themselves to explain the presence of bad things in the world.

Most hopefully meaning