The Powder Of Positive Thinking

All A Matter Of Perspective

The Powder Of Positive Thinking

Oh sure, the world is slipping in free-fall, down the slick metal slide in the playground where the kids rarely go any more, and yes, I guess we'll all land in the inevitable puddle at the bottom of the ride, but what the hell? It's important to stay positive, believe that the world is a beautiful place, hope for the best, stiff upper lip, and all that.

I mean who really knows the truth? Who really knows how bad things are? Most of us have heard the same prophecies of doom for so long that we have perfected the art of denial.

I'm all for denial, all in for living in Delusion City, Nebraska, or wherever it is that people really do believe that if you wait long enough, good things will come to you. Yes, I'm all for those silly dreams, those madcap fantasies. I'm hip to the pancake powder of positive thinking, and I manage to gulp down as much hope as I can on any given day, even while I watch the world swirling down the drain.

Negativity? No, siree, not this boy. I've been to enough carnivals to know when a sideshow game of chance is rigged, and still I throw down my hard earned dollars for even the remotest possibility of winning a kupee doll on a bamboo cane or a giant-sized, stuffed beaver.

I've attended enough magic shows to know that the best illusions are the ones you can't quite believe.

I've been on the Internet long enough to know that the best policy is to fake it until you make it.

No one wants or needs a good dose or reality. It's like a spoonful of cold liver oil — tastes like crap going in and ends up coming out with an even more disgusting splash.

No one really wants to hear the truth any more. So, pulleeez, people ... save all the revelation stuff for Judgement Day. Until then, I'm not going to allow myself the luxury of being revelated, and I'm certainly not going to be judgemental.

I'm not going to be be fooled into believing that, yes, some people are inherently bad, cruel dissemblers, obvious liars, or that other people are seriously committed to making your life something akin to a living hell.

I'm not going to admit to knowing that kids should stay in school just to keep the unemployment numbers reasonable.

I'm not buying the popular belief that some politicians are corrupt, megalomaniac, or worse, just plain stupid, and I'm certainly not going to accept the notion that the voters who elect such politicians are even stupider.

I'm not going to doubt that democracy doesn't really work any more, nor am I going to crack apart that age-old chestnut that "you can be anything you set your heart to becoming," even if millions and millions of people fall asleep at night dreaming of life's possibilities only to wake up in a cold sweat of dreading yet another dawn of impossibility.

I'm not going to get up every morning, read the morning paper and think, "Well that's about as absurd as it gets." Not going to watch the news on television and mumble, "Are you kidding me?" Not going to be embarrassed by the fact that, even though the glass is irrefutably bone dry, people will still say that it's half-full. Not going to question all those cool beatitudes that I learned in Bible study, even if it's pretty damn certain that the meek will never inherit the earth because success is all too clearly measured by selfishness and greed instead of by compassion and charity.

No, no, no ... let cynicism be damned. Regardless of race, religion, colour, sexual disorientation, political persuasion, or anything else that is going to make the future of my grandchildren totally unbearable, everyone and everything in the world is fabulous and beautiful.

It's all just a matter of perspective. So let the dancing begin ...