(read from third entry backwards...sorry for longwindedness) One last IMHO - "reality is a socially negotiated construct" - i.e. the key to creating a better reality is to act - and to understand that the better reality you seek isn't (a) entirely your responsibility and (b) under divine obligation to come about during your lifetime. there's a big ladder of Hopeful Things - the little ones at the bottom are things we can do carry us from day to day, and the big ones at the top are things we can only contribute to as much as we are able - so we shouldn't hang our happiness on them.

saw your thread about hope and planning over on the forum - hope you don't mind a response here, too :) optimism is really hard. have you googled "learned optimism"? Martin Seligman wrote a book about it - I downloaded the audio from iTunes, or you can probably get a copy at any bookstore. optimism is a pretty valuable commodity, because it's often the only thing that keeps us active in the face of crushing odds. rollome was being a smartass, but I think the buddhists do have it right, in a sense. yes, hope is an illusion, but you actually gain a different kind of hope by giving up your illusions, because this hope rests on your ability to act for the good of the world around you - instead of the foggy notion that if you hope long enough, someone will come rescue you. waiting to be rescued is a pretty bad attitude to have. respecting authority is a good default, but realize that everyone has some authority - even a 2-year-old knows many things that you don't know. so I look

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