eThoughts : A Sky Made of Shoes

Somewhere I saw an article about the role of optimism and being healthy. I can’t find it, which is a bit of a bummer, since I never got a chance to look at it. I’m sure it was an interesting article, though I’m not sure why I never got around to reading it. Maybe I was overly optimistic I’d find it again. Maybe I was actually a bit pessimistic about what I’d find. Hmmm.

In any case, there is a bit of a difference sometimes in our psychological reality and the reality we walk around in. One could be as optimistic as one wants and still walk off a ledge at the Grand Canyon. It’s not that the Grand Canyon has it in for us, it’s just that it has ledges and then there’s open air, gravity, and quite a drop. Conversely, one can be as pessimistic as one wants and still make money, live in a nice home, have a great spouse, great children, a great job, and so on. Despite all the positives, the pessimist is likely to believe that the other shoe is about to drop at any time.

As I’m fond of saying nowadays, whether the glass is half full or half empty, makes no difference since it has the same amount of water. But that’s the reality we walk around in. That half glass of water is going to give us the same amount of water regardless of our attitude.

But I wonder how our body utilizes that water based on our attitude?

In the movie, What the Bleep Do We Know, there was a scene showing how water molecules arranged themselves in response to negative energy directed at them as opposed to positive energy. The problem with the analogy is that humans are alchemists and can change negative energy into a positive pattern. Not that it is easy, it’s just possible.
Still I wouldn’t want to drink a bunch of Malathion to prove the point.

Nonetheless, it seems an optimistic attitude can be associated with a better immune system response, at least initially. Optimism can be associated with positive attention, which is more likely to return a positive energy (smile at someone and they’re more likely to smile back). Optimism can create psychological openings and hence opportunities. And so on.

So it would appear that the reality we walk around in and the reality we live in our heads is related, even if they’re a bit different. That may not be new news, but it does seem like news that hasn’t yet been fully apprehended.

But, optimistic or not, it’s a world that seems like the other shoe is likely to drop at any minute. And for all of our advances to protect us from nature’s ledges and our own lack of attention, the psychological variable that influences so many things in the world of reality that we walk around in, from our environment to our social interactions, has not helped us all that much in making the world a more reasonable and less superstitious place to inhabit. If you don’t believe me, think for a moment about the vast influence of terrorism and its philosophical roots. And don’t think it just a recent phenomenon. And don’t think it originates only in other areas or that it is only about suicide bombings.

Perhaps I’m just waxing a bit pessimistic, but I still remain optimistic that humans, myself included, will catch on. Somehow, though, I suspect when we do catch on, we will not make all that much difference in the place we inhabit, rather we will inhabit a much different place.