Going Beyond Pessimism ---Why Try Anything

Sometimes i feel this thread of hopelessness running through everything . Whatever i do , there are so many things that i cannot change . It often seems that large parts of my life are beyond my control .

When i read sociology , the basic tenet is how the individual is shaped by social factors . We are who we are largely because of our sociological context . Freud , in many ways , seems to support this view . Our childhood , our genes , our social and historical context .... every thing plays such an important role in shaping us .... how do we find out WHO WE ARE in this cocktail ????

But i digress from what i began with ...." Nothing gold can stay" said Robert Frost . Well i wonder what makes us move on , keep trying even when we know it wont make any difference ???? Being caught is the proverbial catch 22 situation .... cant leave it and live with it ..... Does it make any difference if i say the glass is half empty of half full ??? Im still looking at the glass .... either way i dont stop looking at the glass .....

Im pessimistic about so many things , but i dont stop doing it .
Rene Daumal, in Mount Analog, writes:

You cannot stay on the summit forever;
you have to come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this: What is above knows what is below
but what is below does not know what is above.
One climbs, one sees, one descends;
one sees no longer, but one has seen.

One sees but dosent one want to see again and again ..that one glimpse makes one thirst for more ....... It just goes on and on .... why ????