I find it amusing now that looking back at my last real “post”, I concluded the entry by wishing everyone a much saner world. That’s tantamount to wishing that it won’t rain in Vancouver.Don’t get me wrong, I certainly hope for a much saner world for all of us this year and every other. It’s just that as I look out my window at the April showers that are pounding the ground it seems that sometimes things just don’t change. It’s pessimistic, I know and I would love to be an optimist and believe that things will magically get better. But I’m a realist. And as a realist I think that we – as in, all the other realists out there – have to view our realism as a sense of optimisim in the world today. There are no cure-all, fix-it, magic potions that will reverse all the pestilence, disease, and complete scourge we have brought upon ourselves as members of this tiny spaceship we all live on.But with that being said, as a realist I understand that things are not that bad – at least for myself. All my basic needs are met and I gorge myself on luxuries as much as is possible during my time here. That is the “real” optimism I was speaking of, understanding that things rise and fall, come and go, live and die. And if you’re immediate needs are met, then the one real thing you can do is by trying to alleviate these strains on other people – the same things that made you pessimistic in the first place – whether they are international, or simply a person you helped out at your local grocery store.I think that realism is far too often classified as pessimism. How often have you heard someone say something, only having to defend it by responding, “Hey I’m not being pessimistic, I’m just a realist!”. Realism is simply pulling your views out of muck, wiping them off, and saying ‘let’s get to work’, because no amount of optimism will change the world. But a real amount of hard work will.