Quency B. Adams (not his real name) was a Prisoner of War during the Viet Nam conflict for five years. He shared with me the inhumane treatment that his captors inflicted on all the prisoners. It was horrific to say the least.
I met Quency, several years after his return from Viet Nam. He had taken a position with a firm I worked for in Chicago.
While a prisoner-o-war, Quency, learned to play the piano without the benefit of a piano. Let me explain.
Learning to play the piano had been a lifetime desire of Quency’s. He approached a fellow prisoner by the name of Marion, who had extensive training in playing the piano, about showing him the keyboard. Marion laid out the keyboard with a piece of chalk on the concrete floor. He taught Quency the keyboard.
Quency would over the coming months visualize in his mind’s eye the placement of the keys. He soon began to hum tunes and pick them out on an imaginary keyboard.
One of the first things that Quency did upon his return from Viet Nam was to play a real piano. And play he did…eventually before large and loud audiences.
The night I saw him perform, Quency played Jerry Lee Lewis’ famous “Great Balls of Fire,” It was a fantastic performance.
When I asked him later what learning how to play the piano in prison meant to him, his answer was very succinct: “It gave me hope.”
The majority of us will never find ourselves in the midst of a situation like that experienced by Quency. But many of us have faced or will face, situations and circumstances that may very well have life-changing implications.
What will serve as the impetus to move us beyond these situations? What will be the emotion that will assist us in being equal to a great deal of unknown that lies before us?
Is the answer found in hope?
All of us at times look at where we are and wonder what the future holds. We think about tomorrow – and the day after that – and wonder what will come.
To answer with an unqualified “Yes” the major challenges we face will be because of our hope. It is through hope that we live in the confident expectation of what is to come. It is through hope that we realize that the negative things that are happening to us will not be permanent.
Regardless of how hopeless any situation may appear to be… there is always hope. Hope does give the real you and me a chance to have a very sustaining relationship with life.
So, hope on…hope with courage…hope with confidence…hope with certainty. There is always hope. Hope resides wherever we are.
