OK, good to be back. I'll return to the thoughts about pessimism that were left to marinate in just a minute but first...... Feeling compelled to also continue my inner dialogue re: blogging, my motivations, my hesitations etc. So yes, 500' Flyby will go public or there just seems little sense in blogging vs. personally journaling. The journal is the private venue...blogging is for putting stuff out there and maybe finding like-minded folks, to be known for who I am, to risk showing up at the nudist camp in all my ordinary glory....
However, now that I've been reading various blogs I am concerned with the whole sub-community thing that can go on. On one hand it's cool but on the other the back and forth comments, my anticipated internal pressure to acknowledge comments is not something I am excited about...seems like a sinkhole of time and effort and yet another "thing" requiring maintenance. And there is the addictive quality that seems to swirl around the blog universe and fighting a new addiction is another item would rather avoid. So, not sure about how to handle that...wonder if there is such a thing as to just blog away and if there are any comments to just leave them sit there with only silence in return? Etiquette check in aisle 3 please!
Having given myself to more noodling time to this whole subject of being more optimistic, of daring to believe and to attempting to see more things as half-full has not felt particularly productive. I do seem to have a built-in abhorrence to naivete, to being perceived as a rube who blissfully struts around in the midst of his narrow-minded ignorance. Distinctly desire to avoid that whole syndrome seen on that phase of American Idol where truly deluded contestants, who actually believe they have talent, sing for the judges who then trip over themselves grasping for words to express just how horrible each performed (well, at least Simon does). Somehow this seems to fuel my propensity to see the half-emptiness of life. Perhaps reading this type of admission/insight someday will lead me to further conclusions but for now it seems relevant (although not admirable).
Came across a quote by an old Italian thinker who said "....pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will".....the one a spur to action the other the resilience to believe that such action will have a meaningful outcome , despite adversity. Yeah, that feels right for me. It feels better to not have it be an either or type of deal....either a pessimist or an optimist but doses of both in differing amounts in light of the circumstances at hand. Is this a cop out? Just another example of relativism? I'm sure it is from some perspectives but, for now, it is my choice to go this way, the more complex, nuanced way of grey instead of the artificiality of pushing it into either black or white.
So, for me, the glass is neither half-full nor half-empty. It appears to have varying degrees of fullness depending on where I stand and from which perspective I happen to view it. So yes, I have been too mono, too much from the half-empty school of naysayers. But for me the alteration I seek is not to be found in trying to leap to the opposite side, to positivism. Instead, I feel right about going more stereophonic by adding, seeking, illuminating the positive, the half-full aspects of each scenario with which confronted and combining those views with the up-to-now chronically available negativity. Now that is something that feels achievable, honest, stretching and worthy of effort.
If nothing else, this blogging can serve to temporarily fix discussions in time. Better to try on certain thinking's like a new pair of pants in the dressing room. One day, when I return to check out how they look in the mirror, if they make me look fat then out they will go for something more fitting. Ah, isn't life just grand!?
Luego, Santiago (Note to self: this post just didn't bring that certain sumpin'- sumpin' of satisfaction that comes with dead-on expression.....keep at it Skipper)
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1 comment:
the beauty of just being able to receive. no gypping others out of being a blessing.
you stopped me in my tracks the other day when I read the "r" word. oooh that's not a nice word mr. c ~ i think it will fit in our spiritual warfare teaching though, as C. S. Lewis wrote in Screwtape "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight." YES! that's a rube alright. Thank you for putting this out there and now I have a strategy against that enemy word!
So, back to what you're talking about (sorry for the little hijack)
operating on the spectrum between optimism and pessimism is right on! not a cop out imho. it's about being resourceful and adaptable. not unwittingly deleting some important information but noticing, adjusting, responding well. i like to think of it as being centered...and from that position, with humble confidence, we can grow in choosing the best shade of grey.
great post ... i'll just savor the rest and receive all its goodness.
oh and your butt looks just fine in those boxers...or briefs : )
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