The Optimism of Uncertainty

«In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy?
I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played.
The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world.
There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible»
By Howard Zinn

É este tipo de postura optimista que nunca consegui que crescesse em mim enfaticamente. Infelizmente, aos meus olhos o mundo sempre me pareceu denso de mais e a vida sempre sugiu complicada, cheia de nós.
O optimismo deste senhor lembra-me o teu optimismo, que tantas vezes considerei inoporturno, porque dentro dessa bolha de calor que eras tu, nunca me consegui afundar por completo nos meus delírios pessimistas, mesmo quando queria.