Optimistic Realism Says the Heart of Life is Good

I started referring to myself as an optimistic realist a few years ago, when I realized I wasn't always quite the optimistic ball of sunshine I had come to think I was. In that moment I was also completely aware that I was far from a pessimist, pessimism is no fun. And what does it help really? Constantly doubting outcomes, limiting yourself, finding the bad...who benefits? Not you or the people around you who can smell your pessimism like second-hand smoke, and trust me, it is as lethal.

There I was, my optimism defeated and yet pessimism still safely at bay. I was disappointed in finding that I was once again straying from the Jo March persona I always attributed to myself. Little Women is a movie I have watched multiple times a year since my finger-painting days, and while I always imagined myself as Jo, others liked to call me the Meg, including my high school drama teacher who cast me as Meg in the play itself. My heart is as free and ambitious as the former Miss March, but my oldest-sibling mentality brain kept me acting as the more cautious and realistic Meg. And that's what I realized that day, that though my Jo personality was not visible to all, it did exist in cooperation with my Meg personality, thus making me optimistic and realistic at the same time. And for me, it is safer, which, unfortunately, is something I do crave.

Here is a simple definition of my mindset: an optimist would say life is always good, and I (with a little help from John) say the HEART of life is good. War happens, cancer happens, poverty happens, heartbreak happens, and yet where a pessimist may take that and say life isn't worth living, an optimistic realist says that life is hard, but at the root of everything, deep in every person, there is a capacity for good. Because you see, peace also happens, miracle cures happen, wealthiness happens, love happens. You cannot ignore the bad but even more so you cannot ignore the good.

And that's how I try to live my life, avoiding ignorance but having faith.