I woke up this morning about 3:15 and found myself unable to sleep so I started watching television.  The Michael J. Fox special on "The Life of an Incurable Optimist" was on and so I watched.  It was interesting to see that in some ways optimists and pessimists are pre-disposed but that environment can play a part in molding that pre-disposition.  I've always known that I am an optimist.  It is the way I look at the world.  I guess I've also had a slight smugness in  thinking that "my way" of seeing the world is slightly better than "the other way."  That maybe us "optimists" are just happier people all the way around.  What I learned this morning is that the pessimist's brain is wired to think of the worse case scenario in order to better cope.  It gives them the necessary time to plan and prepare which helps them cope with the fear.  They are more productive when they can plan for the worse.  Us optimists on the other hand become less productive when we are hit with "fearful scenarios".  Good thing we are just naturally oblivious I guess.  Pessimists need an opportunity to rehearse for the bad stuff.......whereas  I see that as a waste of good energy.  I'll deal with the bad stuff "if" and "when" it happens and not one minute before.  Pessimists just call that denial.  I call it preserving my energy......and frankly I'm pretty happy just being oblivious to the possibility of everything going wrong!