How to avoid being a pessimist.

The world can be construed as a hostile place. Where it’s difficult to survive. Unless one attaches one’s self. To others. For protection. From the potentially hostile elements. Thus the formation of clans and  tribes and communities. Some of whom go to war against each other. That’s what I call hostile. The willingness to settle disputes. By force. By violence. By bloody, bloody wars. At no time is the world totally at peace. Unless it be somewhere else in the cosmos than Planet Earth.  We don’t even settle our intramural disputes kindly, peacefully and fairly. I anguish. Because we stop short of acting as if we were in this world together.  Instead, we have invented a vicious and pathetic form of politic. That refuses to address and serve the common good. We insist on winners and losers. In which one side dominates the other. The survival of the fittest. Or is it the meanest? There seems to be a reluctance. To compromise. To be civil and decent to each other. Yes, I acknowledge some exceptions to the rule. In little niches. Throughout the world.  Where one can find temporary safety. In relative isolation. In a niche. Away from the rest of the hostile world. Yes, that’s how I survive. Where I fall in love. With life. Despite the hostility beyond. Makes me an optimist.  Rather than a pessimist. --Jim Broede