Oct 29.

10/29/2025 11:27. Correspondence 71

Musings of me

Good late evening, friends. I just finished reading Jack London's "To Build A Fire". 

It was dreadful. 

How do we live in a world with so much working against us? How do we live in a world where we are constantly being shown horrors? How do we live in a world where atrocities are constantly being proven? 

I am beginning to believe that optimism might be a privilege. Optimism comes easily to those with an easy life, while pessimism comes naturally to those who have only known tragedy. 

I have been privileged from an early life of love and safety. But so many are not so lucky.

So many have every right to hate this planet, hate what it creates, what it breeds.

But then what?

What then are we left with? A notion that misery multiplies. A notion that we are forever stuck in cycles of despair. Systems that impart hopelessness depending on life experience and uncontrollable factors.

Perhaps. 

There are always two sides to a coin. A light and dark. A beautiful and ugly. A Superman and Darkside. 

They push each other farther than we can ever possibly conceive. 

We see the world around us. We perceive the world around us. We make the world around us.  We shape the world.

In a world full of beauty and light, we would still find things to kill each other about. 

We live in a hopeless world. 

We live in a hopeful world. 

There is and never will be a difference. 

Optimism might be a privilege, and pessimism might be a burden out of our control. 

But these concepts are also fluid. 

Our hearts can always be healed.

Our hearts can always be broken. 

Until tomorrow, friends,

Calvin Landreth