Brightness
How much light you bring to what you're looking at. Controls whether you see the hopeful side or the dark side of a situation.
Lucy Kalanithi and the Question of Feeling Okay Again
Brightness captures how much light someone brings to what they're looking at — and Lucy Kalanithi started at zero. She could not see any version of the future that felt livable. Over time, without forcing it, her ability to see that 'things fill in' slowly came back online. She went from 'I literally don't believe you' to describing her life ten years later as a 'beautiful terrible mix' — which is a dimly lit but real kind of brightness.