Most people do not keep the ridiculous hours I keep but, apparently enough do so that PBS, WGBH has started to put on shows that haven't been seen for many years after midnight on Sunday , at least.  Tonight I watched a very old cooking show by Julia Childs; it was followed by a new opera, Baroque, titled The Enchanted Island.by the Metropolitan Opera Company.

Today was a beautiful, sunny, warm day    There was a time in my past when I loved to work in the yard.  That time has past but the yard doesn't stop needed just because I stop wanting.  Now is the time, right after blossoming, that one should prune bushes.  It became imperative as I have procrastinated for several years.  It is like a man not going to the barber for a year or more.  The world would quickly notice. It is not that I really mind overgrown bushes but when the city sends me notices that they can't get in to read the water meter and will start billing me on an estimated basis, it is time for me to take action.  Today I trimmed an azalea working carefully.  The end result?  The bush looks much smaller but does not reveal the yard barber was sat it.

The world is full of discovery whether it is on TV, in my yard, or in my basement.  Each gives up treasures.  I saw a humming bird on my feeder, heard a mother bird chatter at me for going too near her nest as I was pruning the bush nearby, and found the small, George Foreman grille that was hidden in my basement for the least eight years.  Using Greased Lightning, it now looks brand new.  If you've ever had to wash something out like a noxious smelling and nauseating recyclable bin, a greasy pan or oven shelf, I know of no better product.  Spray it on, wipe it off and then wash it.

Saturday chores were even pleasant.  Gas has become cheaper since the last time I filled up my czar...always a pleasant surprise. I've decided I'm just feeling like an optimistic person.  For those of you who wonder about optimism, listen to the TED; watch the talk by Teli Sharot here.

BE AN OPTIMIST

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society.  The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist invents the parachute. …George Bernard Shaw

There is always a bright side, just as there is on the moon.  The key to a happy life is that you must find a way to survive until you get to the bright side.  That is a real challenge because the bright side of life is not as time-predictable as the phases of the moon.  There is an art to being able to see brightness when your world is dark.  A wonderful psychiatrist with whom I had done a rather difficult family interview said, as we were leaving the hospital together, "You could find a diamond in a pile of manure,"  The analogy was gratifying because I felt that was what my life had been like...looking for that diamond when all I was seeing were the cow pies of life.

Some of us must be programmed as survivors; I guess I was one of them.  It was a slow evolution to this point where I have learned not to worry about things over which I have no control; to have faith that things will work out, even if they are not as I had planned or wished; that the chances of being hurt are there but the odds may be in my favor....or, if they aren't, there is nothing I can do to change them but just pick up the pieces and charge on.

There is no Wizard behind the curtain.  No one has all the right answers.  Most people, however, who do have the answers are willing to share them.  It is up to you to decide which ones work for you.  We must all be like Diogenes and look for an honest man.  Save yourself time and don't look for one among the politicians.  There may be a few there but they are harder to find than elsewhere in life.  Remember, there is no one size fits all, regardless of the people who believe there is. Life is not any more 'fair and balanced' than Fox Media.  Life is as full of random evil as it is of opportunity.

An apple a day may keep the doctor away but kicking in your endorphins with belly laughs as often as you can is way more pleasing and fun.

IS OPTIMISM A CHOICE?

While philosophers continue to argue about man's free will, one can wonder about whether optimism is a choice or determined by one's chemical make-up. I ask the question, having many years of work with clinically depressed people. There is no way that they can drum up optimism when their world looks and feels so dark.

So when I came across an article addressing just this issue, it caught my attention.
2009: Now for the Hard Part

Posted by Peggy Drexler, Huffington Post at 3:33 AM on January 1, 2009 "Is the glass half empty, half full -- or did somebody take the glass and smash it against the wall? In times like these, optimism is a decision. " This author believes it is a choice. I would challenge that thesis. I don't believe it is a choice but I do believe that people, even pessimists, can come to trust that change and hope is possible. There may have been optimists that helped elect Obama, but I would assume that there were also lots of pessimists who voted for him as well. The message of hope and directives for change, rather than the empty rhetoric we had seen for eight years, won the day.

"Only a fool expects to be happy all the time". Robertson Davies Is it pessimistic to know this?

“If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.”
” John Heywood Having learned a lesson from experience doesn't seem to make one an optimist, either.

If I were to try to define the medium in which optimism thrives, it would be in a person who has self-confidence and knows the simple truth: "When life hands you a lemon, you can make lemonade."