A Brief Introduction to the Institute of Continued Existence

Poem by Angela Cleland

Icarus wasn’t a bad kid;
he was just the wrong type of optimist
for the situation at hand.

I actually have quite a bit of time for kids
willing to fly too close to the sun
in the pursuit of more.

But back then, what we needed was Daedaluses.
That’s why it’s the father’s image and not the son’s
that gives shape to the Institute’s crest.

Traveller, do you know what we study here?
You might have heard it called
Constructive Optimism.

Constructive optimists struck the first fire
with persistence and experimentation,
not simply by smashing the same two rocks together

or sitting on their heels and hoping for warmth,
by watching nature’s flame, observing spark
and spread and imagining with their hands.

Or perhaps in your time you know it as
Practical Optimism. Practical optimists
removed the CFCs from their fridges

and watched the hole in the ozone layer
close over their heads
and the heads of the naysayers alike.

Or Applied Optimism, which ignited
the New Enlightenment, turned Jackpot
to Blip, tearing down the billionaires’

weaponised echo-chambers, gave equal stage
to all minds, bringing colour and complexity
and nuance to the world’s solutions.

This is what we teach here, the implementation
of optimism. Action over hope –
stay a while and study with us.

Revel, traveller, in the improbabilities
and see the implied possibilities –
see the future you want and reach for it.

Let me ask you: if a caterpillar
can soup itself and emerge a butterfly,
what isn’t possible?

A caterpillar, you say, has no choice.
Well, traveller, that is true.

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Angela Cleland is a poet, novelist, audiobook narrator and educator. Her most recent collection is Real Cute Danger, published by Broken Sleep. Angela’s work is often very dark, so the call to thrutopic thinking has presented a welcome challenge to engage in brighter imaginings.

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