A fortune cookie “fortune” I had recently said this: Optimists believe we live in the best of worlds and pessimists fear this is true.
Curious where the statement came from, I searched and found that it was ripped off from the writing of an American writer James Branch Cabell who has a line in his play The Silver Stallion: A Comedy of Redemption (1926), which reads: The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true.”
So, I am an optimist, and this occasioned a thought on my surname,
Kitao, which in Japanese consists of two characters, Kita and O, signifying North and Tail, respectively, suggests that I sit with my tail pointing north and, therefore, facing south, looking up at the bright sky and basking in the sunlight. I was happy to discover that I am living up to my name.
10.24.18
