My New Year’s resolution started out with a bang and went out with a quick fizzle from there. As I went on with my life, the responsibility of my blog kept tapping me on the shoulder to remind me of it's existence. All I could picture was a gym with it's usual members happy to have the crowd of the “January Resolution Rush” out of their hair. Now it is mid July and I’m hanging out with the group of people wondering where they would be if they had stuck with it. But I’m going to step away from that group and try again.
I've spent the majority of the last 4 months at home enjoying the perks of being a mom and witnessing so many firsts; crawling, standing, falling, talking. At the end of March the head of the evil snake that is the current economy reared its head again and the company I worked for cut my department. Most of me said, “Yay, I can stay home with my baby for a little while!” The rest of me withdrew and went into Panic Mode, which generally consists of me turning inward, not talking, and mentally sorting through my situation as I develop Plans A-ZZ. I would like to believe that my Panic Mode is not detectible on the outside, but my growing population of gray hair standing out against the original dark brown begs to differ. I always try to maintain my optimism and focus only on the things I can control in an effort to not bother others with my momentary state.
Keyword: Optimism. I don’t know if you’ve read the news, dealt with the Department of Workforce Development or hell, even checked the weather lately, but optimism is hard to come by these days - so much so that I feel no need to elaborate. But as my plans were developing my optimism was fading. Fast.
So in the midst of my disappointment I packed up the baby and went to spend the day with my dad. Now, he is the kind of guy that will always tell me like it is, blunt and to the point. He is always able to knock me back on track after I’ve turned off on some random side street and am worried about something absurd. I enjoy picking his brain – he always has something tucked away in there that I find helpful or interesting. You could call it years of life experience, but I like to think of it as a Super Hero Dad quality. And I always know when I tell him something he doesn’t know, or finds interesting when he responds with, “Is that right?” in a way only he can say. Hearing those words always gives me a little feeling of achievement.
As dad and I are driving through town with the baby fast asleep in the back seat I decide to pick his brain on a rather controversial topic - the type that tends to indicate your generation regardless of your political party. I didn’t want to debate anything with him, or make him see my side; I really just wondered where he stood on it. And of course that topic leads to others and apparently he sensed my lack of optimism in life, the world, and the future as we know it. We probably drove for nearly an hour and I could tell he was taking the long way; he was enjoying our conversation as much as I was.
Eventually he pulls up to a gas station as our conversation hit a natural pause. As he gets out of his truck he pulls something out of his console and hands it to me. It was several black and white photocopied pages stapled together and had obviously been looked over several times as the paper had began to soften. I thought to myself, “Who photocopies anymore?” as I looked down.
“Read that” he said to me as he shut the door to pump gas. I read the title, Cheer; 17 Reasons it’s a Great Time to Be Alive.
Four pages later and a couple miles down the road I look up from the last page. “That’s the best thing I’ve read in a long time.” I look at him. “Do you agree with it?” I ask. I know that if he doesn’t agree with it, if he made me read this because he thinks it’s ridiculous, then my momentary high of optimism will go flying right out the window and die in the passing field.
“Hell yes!” He responds.
Awesome.
So we continue to discuss the article that he copied out of a Readers Digest magazine. He let me keep it, along with my reborn positivism.
Written by Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist, the article covers topics like the environment, the growing population, and the depression: All topics that are constantly thrown in our face with negativity oozing out of them. The media likes to bring us down, get our attention with startling statistics, and leave us fearing Armageddon. They don’t broadcast the results of our efforts or even compare facts. I’d like to thank Matt Ridley for bringing a little bit of sunlight to these topics, for taking a look at the big picture rather than magnifying the flaws.
We are an ever growing, ever evolving race and we are better off now than we realize.
I’ve linked the article above and I do hope you have an opportunity to read it.
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