AKA: No one can kill my buzz but me!
Have you ever met somebody so good at arguing, so good at proving their point, that they actually missed the real point? 
When people are offended by my perpetual optimism, they usually say something like: ”I’m not a pessimist, I’m just a realist.” It makes me sad to know these folks live in a world where the two terms are related by nature.
“Realists”, philosophers, lawyers, etc., pride themselves in their ability to argue anything. They’re the people starting Facebook newsfeed drama
, or the friends you try to avoid having intelligent conversation with because you know they’re going to play devil’s advocate; they don’t even deny that fact; they think they’re charming and witty, but mostly they’re just left-brained and proud of it.
I can, and have been, one of these people. But I’m also extremely right-brained: spiritual, creative, intuitive and holistic. Because I’m totally bi-brained (ha!), I of course have the ability to identify these people, for they represent a very real part of me.
I get it– we left-brainers assume we’re so evolved (a judgement which is grounded in our biased definition of what it is to be evolved in the first place). We have the ability to justify and “rationalize” pretty much everything to our own standards. We are constantly justifying things, to other people, and especially to ourselves.
What I don’t understand, then, is why these supposed “almighty thinkers” love being pessimistic. If we have the ability to rationalize almost anything, and pride ourselves on it, why aren’t more of us choosing to see the lightness in things? Why aren’t we fighting for optimism? As many greats have said, why you gotta be such a buzz kill?
As much as professional pessimists, disguised as “realists”, tend to annoy, I have learned a most important lesson: no one can kill my buzz but me. It’s up to me what I let into my space. And if “realists” want to spend their “rational” energy proving to other people how smart they are, while getting off on killing the buzz in a room, that’s cool; I wouldn’t be a true optimist if I didn’t see the humor and light of such silliness.
,
The Jester
