Pray.

Valentino Rossi

When I set eyes on this photo which was taken at Sepang during the Pre-Season testing of the Ducati Team. It made me think, why does hope and prayer exist in society, even when you consider a fair image of our society today bases itself on knowledge, science, risk and probability, that certain things are predictable through systematic logic and calculation.

Who Prays and What do people pray for?

Humans have unlimited wants, versus limited resources, a basic principle of economics. The poor looks at the middle class and think wow if only I could have what they have, but even the rich look among each other in the attempt to "one up" one another. Such is evident that even in the world of motor GP racing, where Valentino Rossi is a legend, he quietly kneels down beside his bike before every ride and spends a few moments in prayer. 

"Now the moment has come to look for new challenges; my work here at Yamaha is finished. Unfortunately even the most beautiful love stories finish, but they leave a lot of wonderful memories, like when my M1 and I kissed for the first time on the grass at Welkom, when she looked straight in my eyes and told me 'I love you!"'

- Valentino Rossi

Well we can honestly say that Valentino Rossi had quit Yamaha due to dissatisfaction, where his wants were not met level with the factory team at Yamaha. His departure from Yamaha was in hopes that the Ducati team had more to offer him, to grow his potential as a rider.

It is there and then that the ideology of prayer and hope becomes a very real deal. One can safely say that almost everyone prays, whether or not it be to god or simply a quiet wish or a silent scream of hope, everyone prays at some point.

Why do people even Pray or Hope?

Some people would think that it is stupid that others would place the trust of their fate in a being higher or other than themselves. However it is a strong vent or outlet for the anxiety and pressure that the future holds. Also, it means that you have something new to pursue, a new adventure to embark on, a new acquisition usually when you are on the edge of making, discovering or acquiring something new. There is always that anxiety present. Imagine if you could not shift that anxiety and place it in the back of your mind, trusting that the future would be better and you lived all your life anxious at what the next second has to uncover. Well a good picture of what that might be like would be people who suffer from anxiety disorders, or neurotic disorders. Jittery, afraid to try new things, afraid of new places, and even new people. Those who have lost hope would also find everyday life extremely mundane and sometimes even terrifying to deal with. The ideal of hope and prayer is to make these unbearable circumstances bearable.

The beauty of hope in modern society.
Where even in our cynical society, where nothing is placed on good faith and hope, even the very idea of probability enforces hope, where earlier in the post I had claimed that probability bases itself on a systematic calculation to make things predictable, it is not a hundred-and-one percent full proof that everything can be predicted. This is where I believe Hope fills the void of the unknown or the probability of the probability where external influencing factors, even though taken into account might change, and these changes even minute as they may be may change the entire equation.


Hence, one could concur that hope is something that everyone should remember, cherish and never discard as there will always be choices to be made and even choosing not to make a choice is still making a choice, which renders actions and re-actions.