We all dream big dreams, hope springing from our chests as easily as breathing. This is the human condition — to aspire to a better life, even against the fiercest of odds. Sometimes the only thing that can sustain us through dark times is the tiny light of faith we hold in our hearts.

I have been carrying just such a flickering flame of hope for some time now, but life can sometimes be cruel. Today my hopes were dashed against the rock wall of reality, and I am back to resignation and despair.

At the beginning of March, the Transportation Security Administration announced that beginning April 25th, we would once again be able to bring corkscrews onto planes in this country. This news was like a shaft of light in the darkness, a bit of joy in a time of dreary economic downturn.

But today, the TSA announced they would delay their new policy, caving to pressures from flight attendant unions and those who believe that a 1.5 inch blade is all that might be required to bring down another airplane in this country.

How cruelly they toy with our hearts and our freedoms. How deeply they do wound innocent wine lovers everywhere. With such iniquity do they yet build higher their hoardings of laguioles and lever-pulls.

I had but one thing to look forward to this week, and they have stolen it from me.

Enough. I cannot dwell in these thoughts any longer, for fear that they drag me down to depths I have never known.

I have been cured of hope. It has been wrung from me like so much dishwater from a rag. I dare not hope again. Only seek to survive in a hostile time and place, to continue on against a tide of oppression.

Image of depressed guy courtesy of Bigstock