weakened from the weekend

I've got some questions that I'm mulling over, and as I'm writing to myself, I thought I should try to record them.

1. Why is my vision of the world fairly optimistic when every novel, movie, and work of art that I appreciate is actually drawn from real life (a.k.a. slit-your-wrists depressing)? I mean, I can see the value of comedy, but I still labor under the academic's stereotype that a decent novel end unhappily. I'm oversimplifying, I know. Think of it this way: if Malamud's The Natural ended like Disneyfied film version, wouldn't you feel as though the moral of the story were missing? Ok, I'm smart. I know it. I just answered my own question.
2. While working on my dissertation, when do I show and when tell? My response as a sometime composition instructor is that I should know the answer because I've examined my audience. But my advisor is my primary audience and I haven't spoken to him for at least a year...so I don't know. Of course, I'm also my own audience and I don't seem to like anything I write any more. I suppose I should go back to writing sonnets for Allison, at least then I knew who I was writing to.
3. What should I do about Guy? He was my best friend for years. We helped each other through some difficult times. Grew up. Grew apart. Kept in touch. Yada, yada. Anyway, he pulled the Fadeout. He missed my thirtieth birthday party; I never followed up either. I suppose that constitutes a double fadeout; whatever the cause though, he's been moving on with his social life in the past year and I never realized that it bothered me until I didn't get invited a party that he was throwing in the city. (Yes, I'm shallow. I've always admitted it though, so I've got that going for me...and I'll freely admit it now: I don't think I cared about losing Guy's friendship until I realized it would actually have some sort of manifestation in the real, physical world.) So; what should I do about him? I'll try to think of it more later; that's worked for the last year or so.