Optimistic pessimists?

I use to think monastics (monks and nuns) where all perpetual pessimists. Black garments, mournful chanting, fasting, talk of sin, death and demons. But I realize now this isn't pessimism at all. At least, not when looking at these things from their point of view.  Now that I've gotten to participate in the Orthodox church and have met some monks and have spoken to my daughter who has met a few nuns I have come to see the incessant, almost to the point of embarrassment, celebratory spirit to be found among these folk and, indeed, the Church as a whole. Glorifying God, enjoying communion with saints, singing songs of celebration, the death of sin, the reversal of death and the defeat of demons and Satan himself. The pessimism I once saw was the result of me transposing my ideas onto that of the monastics. As soon as I started to participate in the life they enjoy I began to see things from their perspective. I too started to become an optimist.