Deadsplinter Up! All Night: Green Shoots

It's always darkest just before it goes totally black

23/2/22 Luigi Vuoto 15

I’m something of an idiot. Somehow over the years I’ve developed this magical ability to become optimistic when things seem most messed up. I don’t know where it comes from, because I certainly didn’t spend the first half of my life this way. Maybe it happened when I had a family or when I finally gave up the drugs and drink. But there it is: I’m an optimist, especially when there’s no good reason to be optimistic.

Things are pretty effed up right about now. Wars and rumors of wars, prices going up, jackoffs almost certainly getting ready to take over in the next election and no spring training in Major League Baseball. People are still dying from the goddamn pandemic and nobody seems to care any more. Selfishness, hatred, and general mopery are the order of the day everywhere. But the grass here is slowly turning green, and the donkeys still come when I call, and there’s still DUAN, and I still see reasons to hope. But as I said, I’m something of an idiot.

Is there anything…and tiny thing…that gives you hope in these times? Can you stay hopeful and if so, how do you do it? Help me out here. And thank all you Deadsplinterers for reminding me that even if everything goes completely to hell, at least I won’t be alone and the music will be choice.

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15 Comments

  1. im not hopeful…or optimistic

    im of the grimly amused variety

    just take what you want…and try not to hurt anyone on the way i figure

    the world gonna be fucked up for as long as we are in it…all we can do is try to limit the damage we do to others in our pursuit of being selfish

  4. When things are this bad, I get decidedly more cheerful. Because now I’m not the only one stewing about the state of the world. And when more people see it and are worried about it, maybe, just maybe, things will start to change.

    XTC – Burning With Optimism’s Flame

     

  7. I’ve used the pandemic as motivation to fully commit to the school of thought of stoicism. I can’t control any of this shit, I can control only how I react to it. And I’m trying to make sure that my reactions help me and other people that I care about.

    U2 – Until the End of the World

    • Admiral Stockdale, who was unfortunately lampooned as Ross Perot’s running mate, credited classical Roman Stoicism with helping him to survive POW camp during the Vietnam War.

      He was credited as the inspiration for the Stockdale Paradox, which basically said in a hard situation the ones who are doomed are the sunny optimists, while the ones who survive are the ones who are able to combine absolute realism about the hard road ahead with absolute faith in perseverence.

      • The only self book I recommend is called The Survivor’s Personality.

        The author Dr Al Siebert points out who can deal with shit and who can’t.  He says based on his studies that Stockdale’s Paradox is true.  The sunny optimists flame out because they can’t wrap their heads around bad shit. Why people like Aron Trask (from East of Eden) shatter when encountering bad shit (actually meeting his mom who wasn’t even close to the perfect woman from his ideals)* while people who deal with bad shit and learn to endure may (no guarantees) survive.

        *I swear that Cokehead Narcissist was the Russian answer to Catherine Trask.

        I know there are some here who hate this song, but you can’t stop believing.

        Keep moving.  Staying still or looking back is death.

        Don’t lose your shit.

        We just gotta keep fighting.

  9. Not to take rank or anything here but, as a Leafs fan, I think I might be better equipped to pretend things are going to work out for the best when they clearly will not.

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