So we are switching names to something called the "Optimism Network". It sounds like the name of a new TV channel but I can't imagine what kind of shows would be on it, except perhaps game shows with big prizes or Harlequin type romances and I don't watch such things.

I define 'optimism' in this age as 'certain hope in an uncertain future'. It borders on folly. We live in a fast changing society in which we continually implement faster and more radical changes of which we don't know the consequences and in which the changes can't be undone. Samuel Johnson once said of a friend who entered into a second marriage soon after an ugly divorce that it was 'the triumph of hope over experience'. I equate the word 'optimism' as something very similar to 'hope'.

I'm not a pessimist, never was. My life was generally filled with happiness, good friends and great times, a deep enjoyment of my various employments and a recognized success in all of them. Only in relationships with some women did I have trials and troubles but never so deep as to seriously depress me. You might call them passing clouds on a generally sunny day.

Now that I'm old I can be a true realist, look at the world as it really is and not be biased or bothered by what I see because it no longer matters to me. My hopes are gone and my emotions reduced to a rather cold curiosity in observing unfolding events.

I still enjoy expressing what I consider relevant thoughts and also in weaving stories of possible futures. But I am beyond any concern for their reception. As Samuel Johnson so famously said at the end of the preface to his dictionary: "I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds. I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquility, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise".

In my case you can exchange the word 'work' for 'life'. My health declines but the fact that my mind continues on with seeming vigor and pleasure, gratifies me to no end and will keep me posting on this site.

last post: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/bitcoin-and-genius-xjdjvlz

post before that: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/empathy-xyqvqwv

last post of my story 'I am' which I shall continue: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/perforating-the-tin-foil-of-reality-xgvyngg