pessimist

Why is it that ‘being realistic’ is synonymous with being pessimistic? Why is being negative being real? Who decided that life is actually cruel and unkind?

Who determined that being an optimist was the antithesis of being a realist? I know, I know, being an optimist means I’m in lala land. Get real, people. Your thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) dictate the reality of your life. Reality is what you make it. If you think your reality sucks, it will.

I guess the truth of the phrase ‘be realistic’ is that it means nothing unless you understand its source. After all, if I told you to ‘be realistic’, I wouldn’t be telling you to be pessimistic, I’d be saying that you need to shape your thoughts around the outcome you desire.

photo by: robbed

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  • Jaxxy
    Yeah. Sure are some heavy attitudes out there, today. I guess people think, these days, to be "cool", you have to be "smart"... and to be "smart", you have to be "realistic"... and, as you said, realism seems like negativism. Or negate-ism; dis-believing, non-examining what we are handed, and pooh-poohing it all out of hand.

    In the fun little world between my ears, I always screech that this all has to do with the Western world's obsession with science. Apparently, science is the only thing that IS "real"; apparently, humans, and our rinky-dink lil gadgets, know everything there is to know about this whole wide universe! Pride, much?

    Because humans already know everything, and everything has to do with natural physics, a "cool", "smart", "good person" -- you know, a remotely *acceptable* person -- is automatically a critic of anything that does not belong to its schools of thought. Anyone who *knows* something different, for his or her own self, is wrong... and worse, *unrealistic*. The absolutely funniest thing about all of it, to me, is that these are almost entirely the same exact people who criticize religious people... for being "so out of touch -- way too dogmatic" -- !! LOL.

    I will continue to happily shape my own reality with you... those who won't come with us can content themselves with traffic, smog, and the company of their own persnickety kind, as inevitable and unchangeable "reality". They can have my share, even.

    <3.
  • Oh, Jaxxy. I so appreciate your unique take on things and I couldn't
    agree more with your thoughts. I certainly see the "cool" stigma all
    around us... to believe in something far greater than our self is
    certainly looked down upon. I can see the smirks my point of view
    generates from the less spiritual, it's as though they are saying,
    "you fool, you just don't get it, quit living in a fantasy world". But
    in the same breathe they will comment on my "luck", my fortune as
    though it is something outside me that I don't control, that I haven't
    worked for by fostering an attitude of positive thought and action.
    After all, is there anything truly harder in our lives than understand
    our Self and how that shapes our reality? Being optimistic is hard work.
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