Hope Springs Eternal...what's with that?

There is a part of human nature that baffles me at times. Hope. We use that word every day. "I hope you feel better", "hope you make a million dollars", "I hope you find what you're looking for". On and on. Hope to the human spirit seems eternal ... and expectation a first cousins. I hope it don't rain, but I expect it will. Hope seems to cloud the rational mind. Expect seems to try to bring hope to some sense of reality. I think the illusion of hope is a temporary brain fart and the space alloted to hope in the human brain will be deleted in future brains. I hope so. I hope it'll be replaced by a more useful window.

We went to a show in Ala-damn-bama this weekend. I always feel that it's gonna' be a disaster before we go. It's the first show of the season after a long winter. The lure of  few pottery sales and a few dollars to pay the winter bills is irresistible. Somehow I always "hope" we'll have a good show. I always "expect" we won't. And we don't. We've had one decent show there in 9 years.

I hope it will be better next year, but I expect it won't. What is that anticipatory something that drives people to hope that everything is going to be just like that little picture in your pea brain? I expected that in a little town of 5000 people in the middle of Alabama, the people were going to be flat broke. Their only industry to speak of is mobile home manufacturing, so now that's shut down, everyone is pretty much on unemployment.


Gas is 3.50 a gallon, and grocery prices going up Seems the little middle-of nowhere towns always catch the brunt of an economic downturn. Saturday, the  rain was coming down in  sheets...Birmingham is and hour and a half away, Tupelo is about the same, Montgomery is three hours, and we think it's a good idea to do a show in the middle of Alabama. See, HOPE did it again! I knew in my gut, it would not be a good show, but we do this show year after year. "Cause we HOPE it'll be better next year.

Man, there were artist in the show with incredible stuff. The organizers do an incredible job, catered lunch for artist setting up, TV advertising, billboards, everything imaginable. There are no items for resale. One girl had a show hanging at the new $15,000,000 George Orr (the mad potter of Buloxi) Museum. Yet,like us, she's is in an airplane hangar, in the rain, miles from home trying to sell ART! I expect we are all crazy, us artist, I hope so. A great nation deserves great art. I HOPE! I Expect most people don't care about art one way or another as long as gas prices are where they think the should be. They get enough art from their 3rd grader!

We made booth fee on Sunday afternoon...$150.00 dollars. Nearly paid for the gas. Ain't going next year, I HOPE I have seen the light. I EXPECT I haven't.  I expect I'll be there, Lord willing and the creeks don't rise. Hope so.