"Gray skies are gonna clear up, Put on a happy face;

Brush off the clouds and cheer up, Put on a happy face."

• "Put On A Happy Face" from Bye Bye Birdie

Reddit user thisisbillgates asked "With all of the negative headlines dominating the news these days, it can be difficult to spot signs of progress. What makes you optimistic about the future?"

Here is the good news and the hopeful advice.

Whenever I feel down, I remember that I literally live better than many Kings of the past. They might have had massive political and financial power, but they didn't have hot water and plumbing, air conditioning, fridges and microwaves, they didn't have Netflix or video games or VR!!!

I'm reminded of Sam's speech to Frodo in Osgiliath in the Two Towers: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something...That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."

The increasing easiness of travelling anywhere in the world. This is what I'm looking forward to.

The fact that humanity is getting another mini space race going on. I'd love to see a man set foot on Mars in my lifetime! That, and of course just getting to spend time with all my friends to play Dungeons and Dragons every week.

Mental illness awareness is growing rapidly, and people are more and more willing to assist those in need.

Not only that, but people with mental illness are become less and less ashamed of said illnesses and actually seeking out help. Stigma goes both ways.

I have a NeuroPace in my brain to help control seizures. Responsive Neuro Stimulation. I'm on the first few steps of transhumanism and I wake up every day realizing that this cutting edge technology in my skull will one day be the "pegleg" of neurological procedures.

Japan just _approved a medicine _that they claim can cure the flu in one day. The merging of medicine and technology is extremely fascinating.

I saw a _video of a prototype _that was virtual scan of someone's body, inside and out. You could remove organs and see what was under them. If that can catch on it will dramatically help surgeons plan for more successful outcomes.

Understanding of history. We are at a certain point in time, during which we are well aware of what happened in the past. This is a newly available, highly useful feature of our generation. Hopefully it lasts.

We're almost at the point where we get artificial organs. I could use a kidney.

Space.

So much is unknown right now. Excited to see what can come in the future.

Advancements in health studies and science for health has improved living conditions ten fold and continue to do so. So that makes me pretty optimistic.

Evidence of the Higgs Boson and the gravitational wave detection from LIGO were both pretty big news.

The James Webb Space Telescope is going to bring about many new discoveries.

Advancements in medicine and gene therapy. The CRISPR technology has me very excited.

The good news is often quiet and subtle. The bad news is always loud. I try to remember that.

People are talking about cancer cure here. Stanford Medicine made the biggest breakthrough in history just last month. They cured 90 out of 90 infected mice.

Solar energy + desalination + gene therapy.

The possible return of the American Chestnut tree. Fast growing, rot resistant and, perhaps most important, it produces enough calories from the nuts to feed a population.

All 7 of my Honeybee colonies are currently surviving the winter, and today they're bringing in the first pollen of the year.

Also, please support Native Bees, as well as *butterflies like the Monarch, and bats!