As I grew up, my father joined, and enjoyed being part of, the local Optimist Club. If you aren’t familiar with that club I can tell you that it is a service organization, international in scope, that works to help children. So, that’s good.
I think my dad was drawn to it mostly because of the name. He was one of a fairly rare breed – people who are both smart and optimistic. After all, it’s easy to be optimistic about things if you aren’t paying attention to what’s going on in the world, or don’t care.
My mother, on the other hand, was less optimistic, and quite a cynic. She could be a world class sarcasm champion when viewing the news of the world around her. She belonged to at least one service club and a church group, where I am sure she kept her sarcasm gun holstered. She, too, got involved to make the community better. Only the people closest to her got to enjoy her cynical remarks.
The thing is that my mom and dad coexisted just fine. I think she admired his dogged determination to be optimistic and he respected her perceptions of the world around them as being mostly accurate. Even in the years before talk radio and the internet, anybody paying attention knew that things were rarely what they seemed, and that power and money made the world go ‘round.
As a hybrid between my mother and father I have a finely honed sense of cynicism and sarcasm which I display in weak moments. I also try to look for positives when they are hard to find and give people – even people in power – the benefit of the doubt.
I believe that some conspiracy theories are probably real but that some of them are put forward by people who themselves want fame and the power to influence. I hate it that some purveyors of fear scare the old and easily influenced.
As I get older, I’m more aware that we only each get a certain number of days in life, and being optimistic doesn’t cost any more than being cynical. In that way I think my dad had it right. He would say, I think, that a person shouldn’t turn a blind eye to what’s wrong, but shouldn’t let that keep them from seeing what’s right, and working to make things even better.
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Peter Wallace Writes 