30 October

Optimism. The greatest form of courage?

by Jon Katz

  A friend of mine steered me to a quote by Arctic Explorer Ernest Shackleton, who survive a horrific and potentially catastrophic expedition and wrote that he thought sometimes that optimism was the greatest form of courage. I thought that quote especially relevant. The balance between being positive and being myopic is hard to find sometimes. We drown in a sea of hostility, negativity and bad news, and when we seek to comfort ourselves and others, we are sometimes accused of being indifferent to the horrors of the world, ostrich like and unthinking.
  I am keenly aware of the bad news in the world, and have experience a bit of it, but I like Shackleton’s idea. It takes courage to be optimistic as well as realistic, positive as well as fearful, determined as well as resigned. I deal with some kind of fear almost every day, and I have challenged myself to be brave enough to be optimistic about my work, my life and my life. It is a form of courage in our culture.

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