Select Entry- Aparna M. Dasai

Welcome to our Optimistic Essay category. Here you will find the $1,000 winning contest essay, 5 finalist essays and 15 honorable mention essays and a growing list of hand-picked select essays that readers submitted during our "Why Are You Optimistic About the Future?" contest.

The sun shines through the slats in my blinds and although I try to cover my head to avoid its glare, I only succeed in suffocating myself and emerge with a gasp from under the blanket and duvet. I look at the clock and see that it's 6:59 am. Why is life so cruel? I had one more minute to go. The alarm clock gets turned off before it even has the satisfaction of going off and I think the morning actually starts on a better note for it.

My usual morning ritual isn't complicated, but the whole day is shot if I don't complete all components. I brush my teeth, pad to the kitchen, and pour soymilk over a bowl of sugary cereal.

The sweetest moment is when I fluff the throw pillow, balance my bowl in one hand making sure the spoon doesn't tumble onto the Persian carpet, and turn the television on all in the same movement. I have many male friends who spend their lives trying to perfect this move. I gloat silently and settle in.

I don't endorse any one television station, but I seem to have become attached to the ABC morning broadcast. The cast of the Good Morning America can deliver the terrific, the tragic, and the trivial with the greatest of confidence. I don't think it's a conscious decision, but something about the multi-cultural cast makes me feel more at ease. Growing up in the Washington, DC suburbs, homogeny means no sense of majority. Charles Gordon and Diane Sawyer are like old family friends. As long as this crew is bringing me the important, and the sometimes curious, pieces of news that some media god thinks I need to know, I can look forward to a new day.

But, the fun doesn't end there. Once I get warmed up on semi-intellectual fodder, everything goes right down the tubes and my brain gets all ground up again with Regis and Kelly. They may act goofy and may remind me of an over-played Vaudeville bit, but there is something endearing about the corny nature of their talk-show style. The guests don't include world leaders or Pulitzer Prize winning authors, but it does show that often, those we make larger than life, are just as vulnerable, funny, or nervous as any one of us viewers would be.

But when the chatter and banter is over, as I work on a consulting project or writing my own fiction at the coffee table, I have to steel myself for the power of Martha Stewart. Stop, just look her over. She is not the same girl you used to know. She has somehow managed to alienate herself even more from the human race, endure adoration and degradation with aplomb, and still manage to find time to teach me wild and wonderful things I can do with a twig and a piece of ribbon. A phoenix who has arisen from the ashes.

How does this morning programming keep me optimistic about the future? The world has gone through centuries of civilization, whether we humans act civilized or we choose to degrade our own race by the atrocities of torture, genital mutilation, child labor, and force famine. What gives me hope is that societies are interested in what their peers are doing, and are less and less afraid to speak out against, or expose the nastiness in the world. Yet, at the same time, society soothes itself with the entertaining and sometimes comical, in order to give itself energy to deal with the uglier side of life on this planet. I don't take my morning ritual, or the ease with which I can accomplish it, for granted. I realize my perspective is only my own, and there are others who do not have the same luxuries that I have, much less the luxury of being optimistic. But while it is mine, I choose to spread my rose-colored outlook to anyone who will listen, or who is within earshot.

Even as homelessness, poverty, and disease still plague the most advanced societies, what gives me reason to smile is that religion and good hearted people have not forgotten their fellow man. Where government programs fall short, churches, communities, and open-hearted individuals and organizations extend a hand. I cannot lose hope in the world when I see that there are still legions of people who are working every day to eradicate human suffering.

But moving away from politics, I revel in the fact that art, music, and literature are still alive and receiving support. The film industry has found a new key to success, creating epic films based on literary classics. Bringing literature to new generations using film is genius. I am not naïve enough to think that the film industry has an agenda to keep our students reading. However, this does give the movie generation an idea that it takes imagination to create these works of entertainment.

Not without much perseverance, the world of high art is still making itself a nuisance to those citizens who have a mailbox. Solicitations are constantly being issued to contribute or join the local galleries and art societies in and around Washington, DC. Headlines of the Post and the Times may not herald the laurels of the latest exhibition at any of these galleries, but the fact that the art community is thriving and young artists are being encouraged to express their talent, keeps me hopeful.

In the same vein, theatre is still going strong in the usual haunts: London, New York, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo; and is still expanding all over the globe. The explosion of music and literature over the internet convinces me that humanity still has a need to seek the intangible and will not kill itself over war games and dictatorial power.

Looking back on the history of the world, human and otherwise, I remain optimistic because the dinosaurs ruled the earth for millions of years and left wonderful resources upon which man can survive. I am optimistic because Krakatoa replenished itself from the ashes of a volcanic eruption. I am optimistic because slavery was abolished and apartheid is being eradicated, no matter how slowly. I am optimistic because man has landed on the moon. I am optimistic because the USSR was disbanded and even though there are difficulties still, there is hope for future generations to live a free life. I am optimistic because women have become leaders in the free world and even in the not-so-free world. To give up hope now would be to spit in the face of all of those who have worked hard to get us where we are today and who continue working hard to make the world a good place for tomorrow.