Optimism in seeing a half empty glass

If I convey one thing to my children before I die, it is this:  optimism is not the opposite of pessimism.  When you are young, you are a slave to circumstance.  You must comply.  If you do not comply with the world that is created to keep you safe, you comply to chaos and entropy, which insures your decay and cooling.  Either way, the lack of freedom creates a notion that insists that all courses of action are worthless, all hope is dispair, and you must succumb to a world that is cold and cooling...  this is the essence of pessimism and you wallow in it or are oblivious to it, creating a sense of wonder, curiosity, or simple smiles and glitter of having everything taken care of.  Oblivion and pessimism are then the dichotomy, not optimism.  What people must forget is that optimism and pessimism are diametrically opposed.  Pessimism, by virtue of this quick blurb, is entropy, natural decay and a belief in the inevitability of disaster.  Optimism is something else entirely.   Where pessimism or oblivion is an attitude, optimism is a discipline.  Optimism is not just thinking good things in bad situations, which is of course oblivious behavior, but a cultivation of finding solutions to problems that seem impossible.  Optimism has nothing to do with your attitude in fact.  The most basic form of optimism is the will to live, and the will to live at all costs.  As one cultivates an optimistic skill set, people become creative, analytical, passionate, not always happy or even successful.  The reality of optimism is that you can still be classically pessimistic and still retain your optimism, as well as be happy with everything and lose your optimism by stagnation.   It matters not the water level on the glass, half empty or half full, an observant optimist will look at a half full glass of water and fill it with a pitcher if she wants more water, drink the water and leave an all empty glass, pour out the water for a glass of scotch, or pour the half glass into a thirsty plant to keep it from dying.  Optimism is a dicipline of resourcefulness, not the liquid level in a cup.