Weeks after latkes with the witch, an acquaintance, Molly, emailed to ask me what I thought of optimism. She had also reached the end of a long relationship, and was moving states away in our new country of uncertainty. I typed a reply in total confusion, unsure of what I thought until I read what I’d written. Maybe pessimism is the assumption that you know something you don’t know in order to avoid disappointment, but if an optimist remains an optimist when the worst happens, then what is the cost of optimism?

I really don’t know, I admitted to Molly in the end, but it seems optimism is free and pessimism costs you something.