The Tide-Turning Power of HopeSampel

I spent many months searching for a word that shows how good can come from pain.

I decided to look back in time, and it was there, in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, that I came across a word that to me is extremely special. It’s unique because Tolkien had to create the word to describe what he saw as central to the story of life.

Eucatastrophe is a compounding of the word catastrophe with the Greek prefix eu, meaning good. A good catastrophe? I’m drawn to the abruptness of this word.

It’s confrontational.

After all, the words good and catastrophe are seldom put together, being on opposing ends of the human experience. It’s like two archnemeses joining forces—there’s a tension.

A eucatastrophe can wrap its fingers around pain in one hand and grasp hold of potential in the other, wrestling the two together. That’s where the magic is. Hope has a symbiotic relationship with hardship.

Isn’t that the whole idea of hope? That when life hits its lowest point, this special gift of hope emerges in its most potent form, enabling us to lift our eyes once more to the horizon.