Hopes and dreams: capturing what is not there

This chapter provides a glimpse of the hopes and dreams of four women as they are positioned within, and by, historical moments, spiritual and religious agendas and visions for the future. Throughout the chapter, parallels are drawn between the life experiences and foresight of women of an older and younger generation. The interview data was, at times, unanticipated and surprising as the women spoke of their futures in determined, fractious and sometimes tenuous ways. Young adulthood in the early twenty-first century is contingent and conditional but the question can be asked, is it any more so than for previous generations? Similarities and parallels were uncovered in relation to the hopes and spiritual ideals of the younger and older generations represented in this chapter. Importantly, it is discovered in relation to parallel stories were, and continue to be played out, in different ways and under varying social, cultural and religious conditions within and across the generations.