I've never understood the prevalence of "it's going to be all right" as a comforting phrase. Ok, things suck now, it says. But someday they won't. (Well, how do you know that? Also, that doesn't fix the current suck.)

Better (for me, at least) to see it as good now. One of the reasons that it could be good now is that a probable or possible future is going to be better. Maybe some things are suck. But it's never the case that everything is awful. Even on the worst days, physics works. The sun continues to provide our planet with photons. Oxygen is present in the air in quantities sufficient for survival. If these things are not in a good state - the last one, anyway - you won't be around much longer to complain, so why spend your last minutes cursing at something that doesn't matter? Maybe some things are suck, but you're dealing with them, and isn't it good that you have that capacity?

I've been asked many times how I stay so damn optimistic and happy about the world. My quirky variant of naivety is Teflon-like in its resistance to bitter and jadedness despite any of the vast amounts of knowledge I have encountered or acquired through the years. How am I happy? I don't know. How could I not be? The world is crap sometimes, but life is good.

Note: happiness does not imply complacency, and life being good does not remove the possibility that it could be better yet. Be happy, and get off your duff.