Optimism or Pessimism?

Here is some of what I've been reading, written by the oncologist Keith Block who has worked with many, many people with cancer:

"Bombarded with doom-and-gloom statistics, you may feel overwhelmed trying to muster enthusiasm for life. So forget all the talk of 'survival rates.' They do not apply to you. All statistics, by definition, apply only to groups, not individuals. Researchers use them to determine whether a therapy works or not, and physicians use them to help make choices among different therapies. But as an empowered individual, you should not use statistics to dictate your chances of survival." (p 5) 

I don't really have any statistics to deal with...yet I find this very sensible and encouraging...it doesn't mean that you know you're going to live, it doesn't mean that you know you're going to die - it means you don't know what will happen. And how incredibly difficult it is, to deeply not know, to be neither optimistic nor pessimistic, when there is no objective cause for either. What you do know is that you cannot control the outcome, and that what you do will have some influence. Anything can happen.