Abandon All Hope!
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” is inscribed above the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno. I’ve been thinking about this phrase as part of my reflections on hope this Advent. It seems I’m in another situation that calls me to abandon hope. What does this mean? Is it even possible?
Levels of Hell
Many years ago, I received a fine for a parking ticket in the mail from the city of Detroit. How could this be, I wondered. I hadn’t even been in Detroit that day. When I tried to contact someone about the ticket, I received a never-ending cycle of messages, some telling me to wait, others directing me somewhere else where once again I was told to wait, but never did I reach a human voice.
What I learned? There is a level of hell which is called the Detroit parking authority, my lawyer brother informed me. Abandon all hope, all ye who enter there. I could spend hours trying to reach someone or just pay the fine.
“How much is it worth to you?” he asked.
But this wasn’t a matter of money but of right and wrong. I was not in Detroit that day and should not have to pay a fine for something I didn’t do. So, I persisted in trying to reach someone.
Just when I had given up all hope and was ready to pay the fine, I received another letter in the mail, this time with a picture of the car and license plate. Not only was it not my car, the officer had written down the wrong license plate number. This was followed by a dismissal of all charges.
Only after I had abandoned hope of receiving justice, did I get justice.
Uber Support
I recently entered another level of hell, this time dealing with Uber support after leaving my cell phone in my Uber.
I was unable to call the driver because my phone was gone, so I was reliant on Uber support to contact the driver. For anyone who has dealt with Uber support before, you know what I mean. Days of waiting with no response. First, I was told they had contacted the driver and asked for his permission to give me his phone number so I could call him. I told Uber support that if the driver did not want to give me his phone number, he could just drop my phone off at my hotel and I would arrange for pick up.
When I received a message from Uber saying the phone had been dropped off and my account charged $20 for the inconvenience to my driver, I contacted the hotel. They had no phone. The hotel concierge was very helpful, checking with everyone who might have received the phone. No phone. So, I asked for details as to when it was dropped off and who had received the phone. I received a message from Uber support that they had contacted the driver for this information and thanking me for my patience. Nine days later, despite daily inquiries about the status of my request, I had still received no response.
Filing a Grievance
I finally found an email address to file a grievance against Uber support. This got their attention. I received a message saying the driver had dropped my phone off at a police station. Again, no information as to when he did this.
My daughter went to the police station to get my phone. After an hour of searching, they were unable to locate it.
“We receive a lot of cell phones. After two weeks, they are moved to the basement. Perhaps your mother’s phone is there,” they told her.
They wrote down her information and ways to identify my phone and told her they would call her if they located my phone.
Hope Springs Eternal
Repeatedly over the three weeks that this was going on, I told myself to let go, give up hope of getting my phone back. Each time I received new information, that hope came back. A long and frustrating process. I tried to abandon hope but hope springs eternal. I still have a glimmer of hope that my phone will return, but that glimmer is fading.
There have been some benefits of not having a cell phone. I’m no longer filling in time by checking email, reading news, or playing games. I look around in restaurants, at parks, and see masses of people engrossed in their cell phones while the world around them passes by. I was formerly among their numbers, engaging my cell phone instead of people. My cell phone was an easy way to avoid interacting with people when I wanted to be left alone.
St. Anthony – Founder of Lost Items
“Tony, Tony, come around, something’s lost and must be found,” I prayed over the past few weeks. However, the prayer to St. Anthony in its original form includes a prayer of abandonment to God’s will. We ask to find our lost item, unless it be God’s will that we not find it. Unless there is a reason for it to be lost. Perhaps losing my cell phone was for my own good. Perhaps it was to break my cell phone addiction.
And so, I tried to abandon my hope that my phone be found, if that be God’s will.
Abandon All Hope
I’ve been reflecting on hope as I do every Advent, and the ripples of hope that spread from each act of kindness. How does this connect to abandoning hope?
Sometimes, it is precisely when you abandon hope, that you find new hope, hope not tied to any item or idea. Pure hope based only in God.
Even when I think I have abandoned hope, hope creeps back in. This time in the form of hoping the police will locate my phone amid the many phones in their dungeon and return it to me.
So, again I ask, is it possible to ever completely abandon hope? Hope springs eternal. As long as there is life, there is hope. It is one of our unique human attributes.
“Abandon all hope,” Dante tells us. It reflects the fact that where there is no God, as in hell, there is no hope. And so, I find it impossible to completely give up on hope. For where there is no hope, there is no God. What would the world be without God?
Christmas Greetings!
What greater sign of hope than a baby? This Christmas I am wishing you the hope that the birth of the child, Jesus, brings to the world. Merry Christmas!
(For further reflections on Hope, see my booklet, Seasons of Hope.)
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