Left to my own devices

Filmmaker Errol Morris has written a relatively sparse column for The New York Times , in which he basically wants folks to chime-in as to whether or not they're an optimist or a pessimist about humanity surviving a massive asteroid impacting the Earth. I went ahead and answered the two-part questionnaire at the end of the article, even though the subject matter didn't really move me one way or the other. What did interest me, however, is the question of whether one is an optimist or a pessimist. Specifically, I am interested in whether one becomes more pessimistic about the future when they grow older. Allow me to explain.

The Chicago Tribune recently featured an article by Richard Asa about being "young" and trying to re-enter the dating scene after the death of a partner/spouse. I put "young" in quotation marks because the author would seem to define it as someone in their 20s and 30s. Apparently, 40-somethings on up are placed into some sort of  "it gets better" category for loss. Here's a salient excerpt from the article: It's not that the grief is less for older widows and widowers, but most of them have decades of fond memories. People widowed at a younger age are looking at a blank slate where future plans once existed. It can change you.