Foolishness

          The Beijing air has been clear these past few days.  For me, it has been a pleasure.  The warmth too has invited late afternoon walks through the park, even an evening bike ride though the campus I once called my (temporary) home.  I know I complain, but I’m also the first to admit that this would be a really nice city if they could just clean it up a little.

          My positive attitude has lent itself to more “optimistic” thinking.  In fact, just today, I looked out the classroom window onto the cityscape.  I thought to myself, “Gee, the fog is awfully bad today…”

          Someone I greatly admire once said, “In the absence of information, optimism does not equate itself to foolishness.”  He never told me what optimism equates itself to in the presence of information, and logically I can't deduce it, but I’m beginning to see clearly that it is ignorance; bliss in the face of hopelessness; indeed it is pure and utter foolishness.