Beating death

"The only way to beat death is life — hope."

I heard this in a New Amsterdam episode.

Doctor Sharpe couldn't have babies normally because of her genes, and after a thrilling and inspiring day at the hospital, she stands thinking.

Oh, she wasn't thinking. She was talking to Max.

Remember Max? The idealist dude? Yeah, that Max.

Touching her stomach slightly, raising her melanin face up to Goodwin who looked taller than her—"the only way to beat death is life", she says.

"Hope", Max replies.

Then an awkward silence followed by the usual movie direction sequence, communicating to me that that was some deep shit.

Well, I did.

While they spoke literally, I, in my wisdom, thought "Max is right!". Yes, the deep shit got to me.

Life isn't the way to beat death. It is what happens when you've beaten death.

I'll tell you a story.

Justin, you'd remember him from my Twitter, was a designer who woke up feeling impostor syndrome. Nothing seemed to be working. He knew he was supposed to be confident.

Praise told him that.

But he can't. He can't find the discipline nor the diligence to do anything. He blames everything wrong about him on his impostor syndrome.

What happens for him? I don't know.

But think about yourself, Praise,

Have you ever felt good about yourself? Have you felt bad shortly after? Did you feel good again? Did you feel bad after? Did that good feeling come back?

Death to life, life to death are constants based on a variable that could either be hope or fear.

Feel good? You fear you are a fraud and you don't deserve to feel good. You feel bad? Something happens that makes you think, "maybe I'm not so bad after all".

What is Max saying about your moments of depression and insecurity?

You don't need a switch. You don't need to snap out of it. You just need to find the moments when you were good, and remind yourself that you experienced that once, and can experience it again.

Hope, for me, is the fuel for the future from the crude oil of the past. That sounded way better in my head.

Hope isn't unfounded. It isn't from thin air—that's faith.

So, like me, when you're down and bad, try this.

Write an essay about yourself. An introductory letter to Dangote, a cover letter, previous testimonials—feel the nostalgia that hope brings.

Use it as proof that you can do it again.

The only way to beat death is hope.

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Ciao.

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