Optimism…. an updated definition

In my Macquarie Dictionary under ‘optimism’ it says….

  1. disposition to hope for the best; tendency to look on the bright side of things

I’d like to give this a January-2022-updated definition for NSW residents – “Someone who books tickets to a live event”.

It’s a funny time, isn’t it? I’m told by our State leaders that all will be fine. Go ahead. Do my job. Out on a concert. I’ve tried to think how I would feel comfortable if I went to a live event, and what I can do as an organiser to make people feel relaxed and safe. But I still worry that I won’t sell enough tickets to pay all my costs, or that everyone will feel incredibly nervous, or that it won’t happen at all (and the amount of back-end admin that goes into cancelling a concert is DULL. And hugely depressing.).

And yet, still I do it. I hope for a live concert. Because, as a performer, that’s what we want. We want people to respond in real time. We want to hear the sighs and that wonderful moment after a piece when the last notes hang in the air, and everyone is suspended in the magic of what has just happened.

I worry, and fight off waves of panic. I practise. Because I am a lucky performer. If my live concert is cancelled, I have a plan B. I will be able to play, whatever happens. But it doesn’t feel so great at the moment.