One of the most moving stories of human determination and optimism I have read is the story of Jung Chang relates in her bestseller Wild Swans. Jung's idealistic parents had joined the Communist movements in pre-war China in the hope of creating a just society, and when the People's Republic of China was created in 1949, they believed that their hopes - along with the hopes of millions of other Chinese - for a better life would finally come true.
But when Mao Zedong's policies started to fail, resulting in political persecution, famine, disintegration of family life, results that lead to the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, Jung's family was nearly eliminated by the very system they had trusted. Her father, a highly-respected provincial administrator, was mentally and physically tortured until he went mad, while her mother, a school official, was banished to a remote concentration camp. The teenaged Jung, her older sister and three younger brothers were left with their grandmother, who eventually died from persecution by neighbors-turned-accusers.
In one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in her book, Jung recounts how she (only 17 at the time) and her 15-year-old brother Xiao-hei struggled to bring their sick grandmother home from the hospital, with the old lady moaning in intense pain at every step because of a malady in the spine:
It started to pour with rain, and in an instant we were drenched. There was nowhere to take cover, so we struggled on. The rain was hissing and splashing, the wind slashed against our soaked bodies, and I felt very cold. My grandmother sobbed, "Oh heaven, let me die! Let me die!" I wanted to cry too, but I only said, "Grandma, we'll soon be home..."
Then, Jung relates, she heard the bell of a pedal-cart tinkling.
"Hey, do you want a lift?"
A young driver, rainwater running down his cheeks, had suddenly pulled over. The man carried Jung's grandmother, placed her on the cart, and brought the old woman home - right to her very doorstep. He brushed off Jung's copious thanks and pedaled off into the gloomy darkness. Up to this day, Jung never found out who that unlikely savior was.
Now here's the point: even when we are sunk in the stormiest moments of life, we should never, never, never lose hope. Problems are here to help us enjoy life more fully. There will always be a solution in the end.