Hope!

Hope can be a fickle friend. It comes and goes, taunts and provides comfort. It can intrude as an imposter, giving hope when none exists. 

Hope can be cruel.

And whilst hope can give a reason to continue in the face of near hopelessness, false hope simply brings pain.

And today I feel pain. 

Which is unusual as experience, history and my natural tendency towards scepticism, usually protects me from false, unfounded hope.

But I was being told that this time was different, this time I had reason to hope. To believe some of the hype. And out of desperation I reached up and grasped the hope that was being offered 

And I felt optimistic, positive, hopeful as to the future.

Idiot, fool that I am. How could I have been so easily tricked. It wasn't hope I was being offered, not even the illusion of hope.

But a lie 

I didn't matter what the newspapers were saying. Scotland didn't have a chance of beating South Africa in the rugby world cup and I was a fool to believe we might.

We were blown away, out muscled and out thought 

And all the hope proved to be a mirage. 

When supporting Scotland, it's not the losing that causes the pain, it's the unfounded hope 

Never again.