Optimism is...complicated

This sign was located by a railroad bridge across the Wisconsin River, on Water Street, just south of Sauk City, Wisconsin.  It was intended in part to discourage people from using the bridge as a platform to jump or dive into the river.

(That was years ago  - perhaps the early 1990s.  The sign is long gone. Now, there is simply a large gate across the tracks, making it impossible to get out on the bridge.)

I never knew much about the Optimist Club. I always just assumed that they were unremittingly cheerful folks who enjoyed getting together and encouraging one another to believe that everything would turn out alright.  Obviously, that was an uninformed and simplistic view. Something more complex and nuanced must be going on.