Beyond Survival

This is Hope, a painting from 1886 by George Frederic Watts. In Greek mythology, Pandora opened a box and let out all evil, all plagues and diseases. When she closed the box, only Hope was left inside. Hope – who might at first look as despair here – holds a lyre with only one chord. Watts himself said that ”Hope need not mean expectancy. It suggests here rather the music which can come from the remaining chord”. Barack Obama, president of the United States, was