{"id":1528,"date":"2013-09-17T06:22:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T13:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellejolin.com\/wordpress\/?p=1528"},"modified":"2013-09-17T06:22:52","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T13:22:52","slug":"knowing-when-to-give-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=1528","title":{"rendered":"Knowing when to give up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never get to say much, never get to talk
\nTell us a little bit, but not too much
\nRight about then, is where she give up
\nShe has closed her eyes, she has give up hope<\/p>\n

–Talking Heads\/Houses In Motion<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here’s a bold statement: giving up hope is not always a bad thing.<\/p>\n

You heard me right. I said that isn’t always bad to give up hope.<\/p>\n

It isn’t!<\/p>\n

Like everything else it life, hope can be kind of a bitch.<\/p>\n

In its biggest, baddest form hope reaches a point where it turns from doing everything you can to make sure a loved one gets the best possible medical care to causing your loved one unnecessary suffering by prolonging their life.<\/p>\n

It’s the difference between a rational hope that if you give someone you love a little space and time to grow up that you will be happy together in the end , and letting someone who will never change use you as a doormat for years.<\/p>\n

It’s the difference between taking singing lessons to improve your native vocal talent so you can take a shot at a music career and continuing to take singing lessons in hopes of becoming an opera singer even though every music teacher tells you that you’re tone deaf.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I think that hope is one of the things that gets us through life. There are a lot of obstacles that we need to get past before we get pretty much anything we want. Without hope we’d have no motivation to strive to reach those goals. Why even have a goal if you don’t hope to reach it?<\/p>\n

People always talk about hope and faith going hand in hand, but maybe hope’s best friend should be common sense, not faith.<\/p>\n

And sometimes it’s OK to hold onto even an irrational hope, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. Including you. I’ve got a couple of relatively irrational hopes that I won’t be giving up any time soon. Probably never.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I hope I make it to work tomorrow without coughing up a lung.<\/p>\n

I hope I make it through the night without waking up as Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh. Those aren’t the irrational hopes.<\/p>\n

Never mind about them.<\/p>\n

They’re mine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Never get to say much, never get to talk Tell us a little bit, but not too much Right about then, is where she give up She has closed her eyes, she has give up hope –Talking Heads\/Houses In Motion   Here’s a bold statement: giving up hope is not always a bad thing. You … Continue reading Knowing when to give up<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lr3R-oE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8485,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=8485","url_meta":{"origin":1528,"position":0},"title":"What is real?","author":"Michelle","date":"December 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cDoes it happen all at once, like being wound up,\u201d he asked, \u201cor bit by bit?\u201d \u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen all at once,\u201d said the Skin Horse. \u201cYou become. It takes a long time. That\u2019s why it doesn\u2019t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7223,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=7223","url_meta":{"origin":1528,"position":1},"title":"An imaginary conversation about owning a song","author":"Michelle","date":"August 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You know, I hate it when I lose songs when a relationship ends. Lose songs? What? That doesn't happen to you? I have no idea what you are talking about. You know how certain songs seem to just belong to how you feel about a certain person? 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