We need optimism to get through all the bad news about the way of the world. Worldchanging has an interview with Paul Hawken that reminds us of this very thing.
What I discovered was people, themselves. And really just the number, and the breath, and depth of the ingenuity and authenticity in which people really applied themselves to being problem solvers and alleviate suffering, to addressing the ills of the world, and innovating and re-imagining what was possible. And they are organizing around different ways and different issues around different cultures and different manners. And when you stand back and you really get to see, if you will, not visually, not directly, but see it in a conceptual way, how large and diverse this movement is, then you just have to either laugh, or grin or smile.
[...]
Now then, you know what we pay attention to instead? All the institutional obstacles, and the resistance, and corruption, and financial chicanery, and on and on and on. And you look at that and you want to just jump off a bridge. And because you just see that, humans seem self serving, greedy, short sighted and violent. And if you just look at that, you just drink that potion, its toxic.
- Worldchanging Interview: Paul Hawken
If Paul Hawken, perhaps the greatest exponent of sustainability, can be optimistic about things, it’s worth putting a cheerful attitude on. Give yourself a lift and read the whole interview 
