By: Henrylito D. Tacio
(Published in its print edition on August 24 – 30, 2024)
There are always two sides of a coin: right and left, good and bad. When looking at things, there are also two sides. From their own perspectives and based on their experiences, people see things differently.
A person looks at a thing on what on it for him while another sees on what’s not on it for him. In a lecture, a speaker asked the participants on what they see on a white bond paper with a black dot on the center.
Almost everyone agreed on seeing a black dot. But there was one who opposed. “What do you see?” the speaker inquired. “A whole sheet of white bond paper,” the man answered.
You are either for or against. You either see the bright side or the dark side. This brings us to optimism and pessimism. Dictionary defines optimism as “the belief that good will prevail” while pessimism is “a tendency to expect the worse.”
An optimist is a person who goes into a restaurant with no money and figures on paying for his meal with the pearl that he hopes to find in the oyster he plans to order. A pessimist, on the other hand, is a person who is seasick during the entire voyage of life.
Remember Pollyanna? She was a little orphan girl who lived with her father. Without a mother, she was always lonely. One day, her father taught her a game called “Lucky.”
“Let’s start by using crutches,” the father said. “But I don’t know anything about crutches,” the little girl replied. The father agreed, “That’s right, but you’ll learn fast. Now put those crutches under your arms, stiffen both your legs and walk around as if you strictly depended on those crutches.”
The girl followed her father’s instruction. After twenty minutes, she was told, “Now put aside those crutches and hop and skip around the room to your heart’s content.” She did.
“Now, you see how lucky you are?” the father explained. “You’ve got strong healthy legs and need no crutches. Don’t forget that example for the rest of your life. Remember this: no matter how bad or unpleasant or painful a thing may be, there’s always something about it that can make you feel you’re lucky.”
Then, the father told the story of the little boy who complained that he had no new shoes – until he met another boy who had no feet. The boy smiled to himself and said, “Am I ever lucky: I’ve got feet.”
Going through life finding a good side to everything made Pollyanna and her father very contented. No matter what happened, they always considered themselves lucky that something worse had not happened to them.
“The optimist sees opportunity in every danger,” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pointed out, “the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity.” American author Ralph Waldo Emerson echoed the same sentiment: “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Well, that’s being optimistic.
“I believe we have compelling evidence that optimists and pessimists differ markedly in how long they will live,” commented psychologist Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania in his editorial accompanying the Mayo Clinic study.
Optimist lives longer than pessimist. Expecting good things can make you healthier and might even lengthen your life, says psychologist Professor Suzanne Sagerstrom, author of Breaking Murphy’s Law.
How come? For one, feeling well helps when you are sick. “When researchers look at people who have similar medical conditions, they can predict who’s likely to live longer: the one who feels their health is better,” Prof. Sagerstrom explains. “There’s something about that feeling of wellness that’s important. Optimism also seems to help buffer you against stress.”
Like work, optimism is something a person does. “Anxiety and other negative emotions are known to be detrimental to your body,” Prof. Sagerstrom points out. “People who are optimistic are more likely to actively participate in their treatment.”
“The essence of optimism,” says Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.”
Between the two, optimists are the usual winners. “In this world,” explains David Landes, “the optimists have it, not because they are always right, but because they are positive. Even when they are wrong they are positive, and that is the way of achievement, correction, improvement, and success. Educated, eye-open optimism pays.”
Whether you are an optimistic or a pessimistic, listen to the words of Christian D. Larsen: “Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your won. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.”#
