I look forward to the future

There's a measurable difference between a week with nothing in it and a week with one thing in it. Not a holiday — a booked ticket, a friend coming Thursday, something written on the calendar in pen.

Anticipation isn't optimism about the world in general. It is much more local than that, and much more buildable. People who describe themselves as looking forward to things usually have three or four small dates standing between them and the end of the month.

If the horizon has gone flat, that is often the reason, and it is fixable by an act as unglamorous as texting someone about a Thursday.