March 1, 2006
The Dory to Your Marlin
I would be the Dory to your Marlin. It shouldn’t be too hard.
You—and perhaps only you—may come to me and whine. “There are too many changes in the world,” you may complain (and you may even hold a bottle of beer or vodka, whichever you may prefer, or perhaps you may not wish to drink, as it would clash against your personality), “and it spins too fast. There are too many problems! We can’t fix everything!”
Perhaps I would be near you, trying to catch you in your state, or maybe I would merely be trying to catch up to you. Whatever I am doing, I would also be thinking of a response. “No, we can’t,” I will most likely agree (perhaps I may also tap my chin in an attempt to be thoughtful, or even look around for something to watch). “We can’t expect to go back to the past, we can only look forward.”
That would be the most practical and logical action to do, I believe. We could complain all we want about the direction this world is spinning, but simply looking at it and believing the worst is going to do nothing but simply make everything, well, worse. There’s no fun in that.
There’s nothing wrong with seeing the best out of everything. The problems that the world is facing can be the greatest way that writers are able to gain their angsting ground and thus be able to provide their own views based on their woes, but after a while emotional roller-coasters just aren’t that fun to ride anymore. There are thousands of ways to solve a problem, all one has to do is to pick a problem, look at it at the best way possible, and make a beeline towards that direction. Actually focusing on the problems that may develop can turn towards the other dilemmas that the situation may face, and also make it difficult for these to unravel especially in the case that the person may not have foreseen them.
Optimism is the key!
Yes, it is the opposite of optimism. No, it is not evil no matter how many emo people tell you otherwise. Yes, it can be helpful, and no I am not saying that it should be taken in large doses because if you do then you’ll not only be horrifyingly unrealistic but you’ll also be greatly annoying.
“But being optimistic,” you may then interrupt, “can be fatal when considering several scenarios?”
And here I would most likely ask: “Can you provide one?”
“Ah,” you will say, tipping back your head in smugness, “suppose there is a great famine and everyone is losing hope. You are one of those who are distributing the provisions to the people and, try as you wish, there is really not enough supplies to be handed out to the people. Would you not, in all your whole-hearted beliefs, also wish for them to learn of the truth and thus view this as a worst-case scenario?”
“Oh, I shall,” would be my retort (even while disturbed at the idea of such an event occurring, which is why I would cross my fingers and hope for the best!), “yet I would also let them believe in themselves in trying to look for the best way to cope. There is no sense in dying in despair.”
“Yet there is also no sense in providing false hope!”
“It shan’t be false,” I would say, probably with conviction, or probably with less concern, “if they believe it.”
This may shock you, and you may even think of me as cruel with this decision.
Indeed, it may seem cruel, yet it needs to be remembered that such ideas have promulgated one way or another, even in times of trouble and strife! At the same time, the ideas of the people can only be based on their own ideas of belief, especially in how they may choose to accept a possible reality in their part. What is the truth, anyway, but a mere view of a particular person? In this time and age where acceptance and tolerance is important, optimism in the future is the one that should now be greatly dominating, yet it continues to be pushed farther from the minds of every person!
There is no harm in being optimistic. In fact, it can affect the decisions and the actions of the people, just as much as paranoia and pessimism can, yet the direction it takes are based on totally different philosophies, therefore also affecting the approaches that they may take. Moreover, there is also the case of the emotions that the person may feel after the entire affair, and in the end it all boils down to the important question of: which would one be more comfortable with?
Dear friend, you should know that I am not trying to convince you to be give up being your gloomy, cynical, pessimistic self! If anything, I would encourage you to explore your different areas and bring to light anything that you have thought to keep in the dark! However, I am merely pointing out that to be optimistic is a choice that allows for a newer and fresher perspective to a problem, and that the end results based on the expectations can always allow a person to believe that some things have been done despite the available circumstances. The mistakes that one may have faced should not be forgotten, and indeed they should be looked upon in a new light in an effort to fix them. I am not admitting to be a Dory to your Marlin if I only serve to forget the problems that one has faced and therefore never seek ways that these can be changed. Dory, while being forgetful, has always managed to find ways through problems and also see the best out of any situation, while also ensuring that fun in every action continues to be a great factor for the decision.
Perhaps there will never be a change; perhaps for every problem that the world is coughing up every person may eventually turn into a Marlin.
Yet, thinking about it the situations all depend on how a person can accept them. Swimming through a trench isn’t supposed to be easy, and there may be jellyfishes along the way, but if you enjoy the entire process of crossing them, chances are you’ll find yourself facing a problem with a whole different perspective
And, perhaps, getting more fun than you ever hoped to have.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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