Select Entry- Cathryn Olds, Age 49

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.

Why am I optimistic about the future? When I first saw this, I immediately thought "How can I not be optimistic about the future?" Every day I look around and see compassion, consideration, sharing, and loving. There are stories for every town, city, state, and country around the world that shows us humanities strength, stamina, and caring for others and for the world.

A high school in our area had a canned and boxed goods drive for the mission house that feeds and clothes the homeless. This high school has approximately 1300 students and they collected enough canned and boxed goods for the mission to last them through the holidays and until at least March.

In my town of 1200 people, we have only a couple of places to go to eat and drink. We had only one place to go to meet, converse, eat, play pool, and have musical jam sessions once a week. This place burnt down to the ground. What did my community do? They had a Jam Festival Potluck with a silent auction and a beer truck to raise money for those that lost their jobs in the fire. Money, food, firewood, and more was donated to those now unemployed by this tragedy.

Another community just down the road from our town had a devastating forest fire go through their downtown, demolishing homes, playgrounds, and their only diner. Before the fires were out all the surrounding communities had opened up schools and churches for shelters, designated drop off points for donations, and put up grub tents to cook donated food for the citizens of that community and the firefighters. Supplies, clothing, tools, and time were donated to the community to rebuild their homes. All this was given thanks to the generosity of the surrounding communities.

Even when Katrina hit there were stories of charitable acts by others, a person saving someone or helping someone. There was even a group of people from the Rainbow Family, which is not an organization but individuals that know each other from attending Rainbow Gatherings each year. They decided to use their knowledge of feeding thousands at their rainbow gatherings to feed some of those devastated by Katrina.

What happened was a café called "Welcome Home Café" located in Waveland, Mississippi that would serve upwards to 5000 people, three times a day; a clinic that was dispensing vaccinations, prescriptions, tetanus shots, and was staffed by fully licensed medical personnel; a security system to protect the people that were returning and to protect their belongings until they could return. They came for no other reason than that they were needed; they started cooking, playing music, singing, and helping the community that had been devastated by this natural disaster. They helped this town to deal with their devastation both mentally and physically through their support, kindness, and selfless acts of generosity by giving of themselves, their time, and their love.

These are all true stories and they are not even a faction of all the stories that happen everywhere, every day, every hour. When I see and hear about stories such as these, I can only be optimistic about the future. When adults and children do these acts of kindness day in and day out I know that the future is not the bleak future that some paint.

I know that humanity on a whole is resilient, loving, kind, and inherently good. So when you ask "Why am I optimistic About the Future?" I have to answer with "How can I not be Optimistic about the future?" It is because of mankind that I am optimistic about the future.