Saturday, June 11, 2016

The Frailty of My Optimism

As I walking through an aisle in the grocery store, I noticed a slip of paper stuck between two items on the shelf. I'll admit, I read a delicious book called "Milk Eggs Vodka" by Bill Keaggy. It is a book of grocery lists that were collected and together form the quite comical commentary on the people who wrote and left behind those lists. This was running through my head as I reach for the paper. What is this mysterious message? Is it part of a scavenger hunt? A lost list? A love letter?

As I navigate through the journey of life, I've found many moments where I just can't seem to fully get on the train called Optimism. I tend to board the one called Realism. It might be the aversion to being let down or the fear of failure that makes Optimism difficult for me. It's not that I don't appreciate it, I just seem to inherently not understand it. That brings me to why I even decided to pen these words. I'm just not sure where to begin with this concept.

Until then, I've decided to explore the subject, the philosophy, the literature. I like the idea of being a Realistic Optimist. The merger of two schools of thought but within a set of parameters that I can comprehend.

In the end, what the paper was is inconsequential. I never picked it up. My hand hovered and then I moved on. It was an ironic moment of being in a grocery store with an item that gave me food for thought. 

Cheers,

A.