Subject: Focus on the Positive.
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 11:31:07 EDT
From: [Marcia Helme]
To: [UUCF Chat]
Dear friends,
I fell the need to express my feelings about the benifits of focusing on the positive.
In Germany in the early 1930's, some citizens were upset about the direction the country was taking under the rise of Naziism. Some chose to think positively about Naziism and to emphasize recent economic improvements. If these people were of an unpopular ethnicity, they died in the gas chambers well before the end of the war.
Some chose to see the underlying evil and harm in Naziism. Rather than focus on the positive aspects of the changes within Germany, they focused on their ability to escape and make a better life for themselves somewhere else. Rather than focus on the difficulties of adapting to a new ccountry, they focused instead on the benifits of doing so -- e.g., keeping themselves and their families alive and healthy. If these people were of an unpopular ethnicity, they survived.
To focus on what's good about a potential new situation can mask certain emotional states -- e.g., fear of confrontation, restlessnes, and wishful thinking. . . . "The grass is always greener on the other side."
To focus on what's good about the present situation can mask the emotional states of fear, paralysis, and wishful thinking. . . . "The grass is always greener on my side. Seeing the present situation as good will save me from lots of hassles -- e.g., confronting wrongdoing, resisting a seemingly popular trend, moving (or leaving behind) one's friends, adapting to a new environment. So I guess I'll just emphasize what's good about my present situation."
Better to acknowledge one's fear, paralysis, restlessness, wishful thinking. Then one can manage one's future more objectively, and, in some cases, less fatally.
Marcia Helme
Subject: from Emerson:
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 11:47:08 -0400
From: Kurt/Carol Jensen
To: UUCF Chat
Quote:
Don't be a cynic, and bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. Set down nothing that will not help somebody.Author:
Ralph Waldo Emerson