Are you a glass-half-empty or a glass-half-full kind of person? |
I'm a closet pessimist! There, I've said it. Now you know it too. I suspect many of you are just like me. You know what I mean. The kind of person who portrays a positive, upbeat front to the world--perhaps to be more readily accepted by society--but in reality, you can't bring yourself to believe everything is perfect. I know things are not always perfect. Maybe that's my point. After all, negativism is rampant in the world today. Good and hope are there, too. (But, I think 'bad' has a better press agent.) Just watch the evening news--local, national and world, it makes no difference. If they even have something positive to report, where is that clip placed? At the end of the show, almost as a by-the-way, a footnote. It's a little teaser; something to make you smile a little and say to yourself, 'Maybe I'll tune in again tomorrow. They might have some more good news.' OK, so I'm a closet cynical pessimist! What is a pessimist? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pessimism as "an inclination to take the least favorable view (as of events), or to expect the worst." And the person who expects the worst is a pessimist. That's me! Privately, I often view anticipated outcomes in the least favorable manner to me or my situation because then I'm rarely upset when things turn out ill. I can't say I'm not disappointed in these instances. I'd have to be dead for that to have no effect. But anticipating, nay, expecting the worst helps mitigate that disappointment. Disappointment is a part of life. No one goes through life with everything going their way ALL the time. Personally, I would rather be pleasantly surprised with a positive outcome, than be totally dashed with a negative one. At least, such a view has worked for my somewhat more than 50 years of conscious and mostly coherent thought. And look--I'm still smiling! Word Count: 328 |