Greetings Fellow Mortals,
This is your bi-weekly newsletter where I redefine the existential crisis with a series of words, one newsletter at a time. This finds us on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which I think is oddly fitting. Besides the fact that Iām a privileged white person talking about optimism and not a fierce civil rights leader talking about far more important things, but hey ā itās all connected. It really is.
How we show up in our day to day effects the masses. What we do at the small scale happens at the large scale. Itās the little adjustments we make to ourselves that ultimately change the species.
Todayās Words:
(Dismal) Optimism
hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.
From LatinĀ optimusĀ "the best". The word optimism may seem a tad inappropriate at the current moment, being that the world is ending due to human destruction and greed. But I assure you it isnāt, in fact ā itās necessary.
Hereās a quote from Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens (which if you havenāt read, please do):
āThings are better than ever before. Things are still quite bad. Things can get much worse.ā - YNH
How does this statement sit for you? I personally love his honesty, I find it refreshing. There is so much false, delusional optimism floating around this world that to have someone tell you how it really is feels good, like a cold shower after hot yoga. If you do end up reading his book(s) youāll notice his dry, blunt way with words piercing through each page ā enjoy, itās good fun.
On the other side of optimism you get this very jaded nihilism. Which is all fun and games until you end up at the nihilism subreddit (guilty), and actually become even more depressed. Not only did you think everything was worthless and futile before, but now you feel it in your bones. Donāt end up at the nihilism subreddit. Or do, maybe thatās part of the journey, but donāt stay too long. I sure didnāt. I realized, like many Eastern thinkers before me, that there had to be a middle way.
Optimism gets a bad rap these days because certain groups of people have hijacked the term and use it not only as a means to not confront the difficult and painful events of life, but to spiritually bypass others, meaning, telling others they are āwrongā for not feeling positive or good or grateful all of the time. There is nothing wrong with offering others a different perspective, and trust me, I know there is always one to be had. But it is not our job to force others to see what they arenāt ready to see ā and trust me, they wonāt. We are all evolving in our own time and itās best you focus on yours and donāt tell others how and when to arrive at theirs, unless of course they want to know. Which of course they still need to apply and uncover for themselves.
Nihilism and being negative is actually quite encouraged these days, which is easy to think we are all doomed, I mean just look at it outside. But itās cheap. If all of us sit around pouting and talking down about one another and how fucked everything, how is anything going to change or get done? We are quite the commentators, but few of us actually want to do the work. Much of the world, especially on social media, has become an echo chamber. Everyone seems to know the solutions to the world, but little is getting done. And then we criticize what does get done because itās not getting done enough, or the way we want. What a headache.
Iām done with the headache. Iām done with the self-righteousness of believing I am ultimately right in all I think and do and say. Iām not. Iām often wrong, and thatās okay. When I am open to that, thatās how I become less wrong. And thatās my only goal moving forward ā be less wrong. So, Iām reclaiming optimism! Iām keeping it honest and admitting itās dismal. Iām not sugarcoating the ills of the world, and Iām also not going to deny human advancement and the wondrous ways we exist. I realize there is a lot fucked, and I still art, flowers, and the mourning doves who visit my fire escape every morning. I realize I am incalculably lucky to be alive in a time (and in a country) where many freedoms were already fought for me, and that the fight for freedom is never really over, and that I have a responsibility to that freedom ā because I have a responsibility to my own freedom. We all do.
Life is a lottery. A gamble. Itās all luck. We didnāt choose any of this. (Unless you believe in a soul and believe we did in fact choose this ā I suppose itās not impossible, but this doesnāt resonate for me.) We are part of the evolution of the Cosmos. We have become a very powerful force here on Earth. This force can be used for destruction or creation, and will likely always oscillate between the two ā but yes, I believe the destruction can be less. There is a reality where it is.
These problems we have arenāt novel, theyāre as old as our dawn. If you want change, let it begin within the seed of your heart, friends. Start there. Start small. Start with where you harbor the power, within yourself. We must wake up to our power and take responsibility for it, and also admit we are far from the most powerful force in the Universe. If reality decides to take us out the way it did the dinosaurs, then that will be that. And whatever is next will rise to power. Stay humble. Stay in awe. Choose the meaningful things ā meaning to you. Not all of us have to agree on what is meaningful, and we wonāt. There are billions of us. Get to reality. Get to your own reality. Create what you can with what you have, and believe it can get better. And cry your eyes out when you need to, too. Love ya.
Enjoy your next two weeks! I hope you try on dismal optimism ā if you do, message me and let me know how it feels!