Originally broadcast on CHED radio - Date unknown

There is an excellent a little book on the market called You Learn by Living. It was written by a woman I admire very much, the late Eleanor Roosevelt. In this book she says some pretty compelling things about optimism, things that I feel are important in this frantic world in which we live. A woman said to Mrs. Roosevelt, "I can't understand your optimism. I think it is hard not to be cynical when a person looks around him”. Mrs. Roosevelt replied by stating that to her, cynicism is a form of philosophical defeat. It comes only when you have given up any thought or hope of achievement. She goes on to say "if you care enough about certain things and work for them, I think you are bound to find them in the people you are with. What matters now as always is not what we can't do; it's what we can and MUST do. Affirmation rather than negation. I do not believe that good always conquers evil, because I have lived a long time in this world and have seen it isn't so. I do not seek the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or think that everything will have a happy ending because I would like it so.” Mrs. Roosevelt goes on to say that she has seen, under the most improbable circumstances, that man can remake himself. He can even remake the world if he cares enough to try. Given leverage enough, a wise man said, "if I could lift the world." Given incentive enough, man could remake the world. Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than fear, to try, rather than not to try, for one thing we know beyond doubt; nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, "it can't be done.”