When I look at people who seem to have lived long, vibrant lives, people such as Frank Lloyd Wright or Georgia O'Keeffe, I see people who acted as if they exp

When I look at people who seem to have lived long, vibrant lives, people such as Frank Lloyd Wright or Georgia O'Keeffe, I see people who acted as if they expected to live forever. What stands out as a key difference between the happy and the unhappy is the belief that good, interesting, exiting things are ahead. Hell, more than half the fun of a vacation is the expectation of the fun you're going to have. (See also: certain beliefs in an afterlife.) It pains me, as I get older, to see some of my friends and family shift from being upbeat and energetic, folks who made plans for the future, to dour and nostalgic, as if everything good that might ever happen to them has already passed. Fuck that. Never stop.