OPTIMISTICALLY SPEAKING

I’m one of those people you hate. You know, full of optimism. The world is delightful, and nothing can get me down. I’ve heard people like me talking to others, and I’ve thought: ‘what a …’
Well, we won’t go into that.

But nothing, good reader, is how it seems.

I was optimistic as a kid. Not inside, you understand, but how I reacted to life. I suppose today I’d have been classed as hyper-active and put on drugs. In earlier times, I’d have had the ‘Devil in me.’
I was the kid who would see a high gate … with spikes on top … in the snow … as a challenge. As I hung there, a spike through my hand, I said: ‘Ouch.’
I was the kid that nothing could touch. Hence, I wasn’t looking that Christmas Eve morning when I went tumbling into the electric fire.

Optimism is such trouble

Two years and nine surgical operations later, my optimism – my indestructibility – was still there. It wasn’t inside, but it WAS on the surface, where it counts. And as adolescence came and went, the optimism transferred to the opposite sex.
Sometimes I was successful, at other times not.

You mean I wasn’t a babe-magnet?

That’s the trouble with optimism. It’s a good outlook to have, but it causes misjudgements and calamities.
I realized this eventually, and decided optimism must be tempered with pessimism. It is not a depressing outlook to have, but a means of survival.
Nowadays I live by a simple mantra: plan for the worst and hope for the best. I do this because I’ve realized life must be a balance or it’s a bitch. And with this outlook, most of the surprises are good ones.

© Anthony North, August 2007

Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.
If you like fiction, click Fiction Page on Blogroll for my short stories.
Check out the pages. Find my Links on Eye On the World.

TONY ON HEALTH AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Getting a grip on health … PLUS … Where do good black role models come from? The truth about thriving Britain and jobs.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY … a real voice of Britain and the world.

THE HEALTH THING

Advice, advice. Always advice. The latest piece of wisdom is that laid-back people have less chance of having a stroke. You know, I’d never have thought of that. I’d never have realized that coping with life, not getting over-whelmed, would have an effect on health.
I’m a great believer that science, including medical science, should be tempered by commonsense. If a declaration by scientists holds commonsense, then it increases the chances of being true. But we’re now at the stage where science is trying to back up commonsense with science. Seems a bit pointless to me.

Lifestyle and things

And then they go and spoil it by claiming that modern lifestyle is causing a rise in cancer and other illnesses. Too much drinking, smoking and eating, combined with lack of exercise is a recipe for disaster.
Now which part of this is untrue? Maybe the use of the term ‘modern lifestyle.’ Let’s take ‘binge-drinking’. Go out for, say, six pints of beer on a night, and you’re a binge-drinker. And such a modern phenomenon is wrong.

When modern is old

No, what IS wrong is the idea that this is new. When I was in my late teens, early twenties, I could easily drink this amount several nights a week. As a kid I knew many men who drank over a gallon a night.
Some of these are still around and in their 90s; and yes, many of them are dead. But here is the problem with this kind of advice. Yes, ‘binge-drinking’ may be anti-social, it may be bad for your health. This is not the point. The point is this:
For as long as a clear untruth can be seen in such messages, the advice will be ignored. One of the greatest dangers to our health is people in ‘authority’ treating the public as if they are stupid.

© Anthony North, August 2007

THE REAL UNEMPLOYED

The successful UK economy is not as successful as we are led to believe. With unemployment said to be around 2 million, the real figure is more like 4 million when those on incapacity but capable of work are taken into account …
… read more …

BLACK ROLE MODELS

There is no more evidence that the UK government continues to lose the plot than the idea that African-Caribbean boys should have role models such as teachers, lawyers, and even politicians such as Paul Boateng …
… read more …

Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for more current affairs.
If you like fiction, click Fiction Page on Blogroll for my short stories.
Inde-Pol