Optimism and Hope

“If you are genetically endowed with an optimistic bias, you hardly need to be told that you are a lucky person—you already feel fortunate. An optimistic attitude is largely inherited, and it is part of a general disposition for well-being, which may also include a preference for seeing the bright side of everything. If you were allowed one wish for your child, seriously consider wishing him or her optimism. Optimists are normally cheerful and happy, and therefore popular; they are resilient in adapting to failures and hardships, their chances of clinical depression are reduced, their immune system is stronger, they take better care of their health, they feel healthier than others and are in fact likely to live longer. -Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” -Jim Stockdale (Medal of Honor winner who spent 8 years as a P.OW. in Vietnam)

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me. -poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

Optimism is great, but it’s not enough. For those really difficult and uncertain times, when circumstances are brutal, when you don’t know if you’re gonna make it through, when you don’t see any light in the distance, when you can’t possibly fathom how this story ends well, enter hope.

Hope is mysterious and mystical. Hope is relational. It’s trust in one another and something much bigger and more powerful than just yourself and your optimistic mindset.

You don’t need to know how or when you will get through this. You just need to know and have constant hope that you will.

That hope and trust is what allows you to take the necessary steps and actions to just get through this minute, this hour, this day. And to help each other do the same.

Day by day.

One foot in front of the other.

You will get through it.

We will get through it.