Beginnings - #18

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What do you think of the essay about beginnings?

-- (shaikha@bu.edu), September 25, 1999

Answers

Response to #18

I'm not too good with optimism either. I don't necessarily see anything wrong with this, though--I think that being optimistic isn't always constructive--if you are prepared for the worst, you are less surprised if it happens. I think the key is to prepare for the worst, but not necessarily expect it. That way, you can still enjoy what's happening without being blindly faithful that everything will work out all right. I do think it is important to enjoy happiness, though. I have a bad habit of worrying when I am happy. This, as Cris (Alanna's brother) says, is ridiculous. there is no point in trying to attain happiness if you cannot enjoy it when it happens. Enjoying the present is extrmemly important, because, after all, our lives are made of moments.

-- jessica dorfman (shaikha@bu.edu), September 26, 1999.

I used to describe myself as a cynical optimist, because although I thought everyone was basically good, I was also fully aware of and rarely surprised by all the terrible things that people frequently do. Someone said that I wasn't cynical, just skeptical - but I've come to believe that the correct word is realistic. I think it is not impossible to retain that distinction - to have faith in the basic rightness of the world without wearin rose-colored glasses - only difficult to avoid falling too far one way or the other. My mother has a saying that I particularly like: 'Life turns out for the best, but not before it gives you a few good swift kicks to the teeth.'

-- Wendy Ruhm (wruhm@compuserve.com), September 28, 1999.

"What are we afraid of that makes us accept so much that is intolerable? We're afraid of intimacy, of wildness, of love; afraid of the very things we desire, because if we acknowledged them we would have to acknowledge the possibility of losing them.

If we fail in this century, it won't be because of arrogance, it'll be because of fear."

Terry Tempest Williams

-- Scott Snyder (scott-snyder@home.com), September 29, 1999.


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