Optimism

I have been watching a documentary tonight that Michael J Fox did after he published his last book. I did a research project on him when I was in high school right after he went public with his PD and after watching this I asked myself a question that I want to ask all of you and see what you think.

Is optimism taught to us or are we born that way?

Is it just the way we are or do we get that way through a series of events in our lives that make us see the picture differently?

The documentary is called "The adventures of an Incurable Optimist" how many of us are just that incurably optimistic? With the world the way that it is and things changing quicker than most of us even realize how many of us are seeing the glass half full instead of half empty? In countries like India where the believe that fate decides what path life takes they make movies like "Slum Dog Millionaire" and inspire millions of people around the world.

And how many things do we take for granted everyday because we can do them without effort? I watched as a man that cannot control the shaking in his limbs play golf.... he can barely hold the club let alone have any control over where the ball is going, but he gets out and plays because he enjoys the game and the time to spend with friends. Everyday most of us get out of bed and go about our day without giving things like brushing our teeth a second thought. When there are people out there that have spent 20 or 30 years doing all of these things without a problem and one day that all changes and it is all they can do to get out of bed.

My point I guess is that even in the hard times that we are all dealing with in our own ways, we can choose to be optimistic and we can see the bigger picture and make the best of the life that we have been given. We can for lack of a better phrase take the lemons and make lemonade. I think that this world needs more incurable optimists.