At the end of the journey, the pessimist may be right but the optimist enjoyed the trip

Webster defies optimism as disposed to take a favorable view of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome. The key word in this definition is expect. I'll take it one step further. You get out of life exactly what you expect out of life. You may as well expect the best.

I have always lived by the notion that if someday we are all going to sit back and look at this and laugh, we might as well laugh now. Why wait until someday? Don't ask me why but it has always worked for me.

I consider myself a hyphenated American, a Mutt-American if you will. Half of my genetics came by boat to the James River in the 1680's, thrown out of England I assume. My other half had already been here for a few thousand years and don't really remember sending them an invitation. The white side of my family got thrown out of every decent state and the native side of my family was forcibly removed or "relocated" to Oklahoma. Now I am sixth generation "Okie", a title I'm proud to own. Yes, I'm talking real John Steinbeck "Grapes of Wrath" Okie. My grandparents left Oklahoma for a bit during the depression to pick fruit in California. Six generations in one place is a long time, especially this place. But through all of this turmoil of relocation, removal and moving around, they always seemed to make the best of the situation. Optimism seems to be a part of me. But like anything else, it requires practice to hone the skill until it becomes second nature. Sometimes it is very difficult. Sometimes it does not feel natural to be optimistic. At those times though, it is most important. You must continue to feed your mind with positive attitudes. CD's, books, positive relationships will all help in this quest but you are the architect of your feelings and attitudes. Like any architect, your end result will only be as good as your blueprint and tools. I always have positive CD's and tapes in my car. I listen to audios as I fall asleep at night. I feed my mind with the positive as often as possible because the negative is all around us. All you have to do is open your eyes in the morning and turn on the tv or radio to have all sorts of negatives bombarding you second by second. So I call this my missile defense system. Am I excessive? I don't know. Do I have to focus on my attitude non-stop? I suppose I could be negative without doing so. It would probably be easier, but not nearly as much fun.

When my ancestors were in a drought or when the buffalo hadn't returned, they celebrated with a dance, thankful for what they did have and believing the rain and the buffalo would return. They danced without stopping and celebrated. It always worked. The buffalo and rains always came. A pessimist might say, "Well it was probably going to rain anyway." or "The buffalo were on their way and it just took them a few days longer to get there." The pessimist may have been right. But how fun would that have been, just to sit around and wait. WE DANCED! So I guess what I am saying is, when you are really worried and things look bad, get off your asses and DANCE! ;

Thanks for indulging me, DrJim