The Cockeyed Optimist and the Straightfaced Pessimist

A Cockeyed Optimist met a Straightface Pessimist
As she went uphill and he travelled down
Said the Cockeyed Optimist to the Straightface Pessimist,
“I am afraid to turn around –
The hill is so steep, and the bottom so far
Do you yourself know where you’re going?
I would suggest staying here, right where you are
Not a slip of the grip or a trip without knowing.”
The pessimist smiled (oh the irony there)
and glanced backways, upways over the hill
“But when,” said he, “when you’ve gone, where?
When you’ve got to the top, can you go upward still?”
“As surely as you can fall downward,” said she,
“when the bottom you’ve hit and are sinking.”
And there they both sat, and forever will be,
Looking not up nor down, and all the while thinking.