Excuse me for speaking from my recently concussioned brain, but I can’t help but go back and forth on this whole issue of optimism versus reality.
We have all the millionaires and billionaires (like Oprah) telling us that if our life is not quite peachy yet we have only ourselves to blame, because we haven’t found a way to feel positive enough about our life and our potential, while the rest of the world seems to be literally floating away, getting destroyed by tornadoes or crushing earthquakes, not to mention crop failures and starvation.
I just can’t bring myself to blame those Iowans whose houses floated down the river this week, or the boy scouts that died yesterday in a tornado. I guess they were REALLY thinking the wrong kind of thoughts!
Having experienced a very bad accident recently, that happened so totally by surprise, I have to say optimism had nothing to do with it. Up until the time that I flew off my bike, and arrived unconscious in a heap on the ground, I was feeling wonderfully positive and optimistic.
Now, after experiencing the worst pain of my entire life in the past few weeks, I can find no comfort in the kind of mystical thinking that would say I somehow deserved this misfortune.
Accidents and misfortunes happen all the time to all sorts of people. Some find some sort of solace in their religion, while others simply realize there is no rhyme or reason to the crazy happenings in this world, and blaming the victims is both cruel and absurd. It’s enough to make you think you may need affordable term life insurance!
Could it be that there really is no justice in this world, and to pretend that we have control over everything that happens to us is crazy making? Do we feel responsible for so much more than we control?
As stated before, I believe a positive outlook will take you a lot further than clinical depression. Given a choice, I choose feeling positive about my future and visualizing my goals as much as anyone. I’ve even had some good experiences with setting high goals and reaching them. We should each seize this moment if we have the power and energy right now, and make this day the best that it can be.
But let us also show compassion and concern for those whose lives have fallen apart through no fault of their own. There is no justice in the terrible earthquakes that have destroyed parts of China recently, or the boy scouts who were quite simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no deeper meaning or silver lining to these types of miserable consequences, and to try and pretend otherwise is absurd.
