Hope Not Optimism

In the meditation collection "What We Share" edited by Patricia Frevert, Bruce T. Marshall challenges us to have hope rather than optimism. He describes the difference as follows:

"Optimism, as I understand it, is an attitude of expectaaion that a prticular result will occur - that a person will recover from an illness, that we will achieve a specific goal, that the Publishers Clearing House will pick my nunmber from among the billions submitted. The dictionary defines optimism as "an inclination to anticipate the best possible outcome."
Hope is less specific. It's an attitude that looks for possiblitilty in whatever life deals us. Hope does not anticipate a particular outcome, but keeps before us the possibility that something useful will come from this."

I found this a helpful distinction. It provides an alternative to pessimism and negativity when things aren't going well. I begin to understand the positive pessimists that I have known. It always seemed like an oxymorn that someone would try when they expected to fail. But, i see now that they didn't have expectations, but they still had hope.