While feeling mopish early today, I picked up the book "Breaking Ground" by Daniel Libeskind. D.L. is an utmost optimist, which may be due to the fact that he has a happy and harmonious family and is always supported by his wife, children and most importantly ... his parents.

His early childhood impression on violent anti-Semitic society in postwar Eastern Europe and constant immigration to strange lands does not seem to cast any shadow on his heart. Although the gray and sorrowful pictures appear in some of his designs, such as the memory void in the Berlin Jewish Museum and the display of the underground slurry wall for the reconstruction of Ground Zero in New York City, the ultimate goal, however, is to bring new vision and spirit of hope to people.

In the face of difficulties and attacks, Libeskind expresses selfless resistance, believing in his capability to contributing to humanity, arousing both memory and hope, without a single thought of giving up. Such indomitable will is indeed admirable and praiseworthy. As he says, you can be a gloomy musician, a disanimated poet and create art in the subject of despair, but you cannot be an architect and pessimist at the same time. Essentially architecture is an optimistic profession; every step must carry belief and hope, from sketches on paper to three dimensional habitable space.

We must not lose our confidence or abandon our dream, but seek all possibilities to pursue our goals, indispensably with wisdom, courage and resolution. Not only can an affirmative outlook bring pleasure to us as architects during the creation process, but also to the people, to the world. So... let’s say YES to architecture!