Mother Earth and the Silver Lining

Perhaps I have been accused in the past of being pessimistic, but I think I am practical – sensible, really.

I hate when people tell me to think positive or that things will always work out.  How do they know?  Last time I checked, there are always thousands of reasons why plans get derailed or goals don’t get achieved.  There’s a whole list of phrases that really bother me:

• Look on the bright side.
  • I tried, but I got blinded and couldn’t walk or think straight afterwards.
• There’s always a silver lining.
  • Really, when I look up at the clouds in the sky, the lining just looks gray to me.
• You just have to believe in yourself.
  • Sure.  I used to believe in Santa  Claus and the Easter Bunny, too.
• Things have a way of working out
  • For whom?  Me?  I think it’s really 50/50 at best.  In what world is 50% winning??

My husband has been telling me to think positive.  My coworker tells me, if you wake up and think things are going to happen they will.  And the books!!  Don’t get me started on the plethora of books….

You mean all I have to do is just wake up think “I’m going to positive now!  Things will happen!”??  Let me tell you, my  negative sensible thinking has been going on for a while.  I have proof.

Yesterday was Earth Day.  You see, over twenty years ago I wrote on this topic.  The essay was dire and dark enough for the local paper to run it.  So to prove how far I have to go from myself to becoming a super-positive person, I’m sharing with you my “Mother Earth” essay I wrote as a 12-year-old.  See below:

Greensboro News & Record, Sunday, Nov 11, 1990

What will our Mother Earth look like 100 years from now?  She’ll be very, very ill, for one thing. Her surface probably will be very dried out and her beautiful features will be dead or dying.  Don’t expect all her limbs to be there.  She and her children will be tired and worn. Her children will be wearing gas masks and oxygen tanks because of all the chemicals in the air.  All clothing will be cool and light since the ozone layer has vanished and it has let extreme heat come in. This is also a cause for wearing sunglasses.  Her children will have to wear sunscreen to protect their skin.  Food will be scarce because all of the crops will have died. In 100 years don’t expect life to be fun or comfortable, we’ll be living dead.  So be kind to Earth, our mother.

Susan

Grade 7

Believe it or not, I was a happy kid.   I really don’t know where these dark thoughts from, and I can assure you that if I ever laid awake at night worrying it was about boys and gossip – not the environment.

So far, almost 22 years have gone by, and I think a lot of Mother Earth’s beautiful features are thriving and most people are surviving just fine without gas masks and oxygen tanks.  Although goofy weather events, including an incredible warm winter here in the Northeast, seem to be telling us something…

My concern for the next 78 years has less to do with the ozone layer and more to do with the economic environment – but that’s a different post…

So, 22 years later, I’m trying to be more positive – really, I am.

• I don’t worry about money every second of the day – just a few hours
• I don’t worry about what people think about me – all the time
• I am trying not to obsess about everything being perfect all the time

I’m trying to be sunny.  In fact, someone awarded my the Sunshine Award a couple of weeks ago by TrishaDM.

The blogging award comes with some rules about sharing some information about yourself and mentioning/nominating other blogs.  I’ll get to all that soon.  Right now, I’ve taken this Sunshine award as a directive  – so, yes, I will add more sunshine.  And, I vow, that my next published writing will be more upbeat and at least written in a consistent tense (I can’t overlook all flaws now…).

By the way, I do believe there is some merit to these self-help books I mentioned above.  It would be hypocritical of me to eschew double negatives in writing and then permit myself to be doubly negative about positive-thinking books….

Full disclosure – the only book of the bunch I read was “The Power of Now”, which was a gift from my Aunt Sherry who was a generous and fun-loving woman bright enough to light up any room.  She is truly missed.  So I think it’s about time I reread that book, which is available free as a PDF here.  I’m positively overdue for rereading it….