I'm A Closet Pessimist

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!

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