Friday, February 3, 2012
Smilingly Cynical
Someone told me recently that I was the most pleasant person they knew because I was always smiling and happy. This made it necessary for me to ask my friend Chris about my current level of cynicism compared to past levels. I had to ask because Chris once described me as the most cynical person he knew. His eventual response was 'slightly greater'. As in, I am more cynical now than when he called me the most cynical person he knew. I find it intriguing that I can exist in this weird dichotomy of being most pleasant for one person and most cynical for another. Apparently I'm just cynical with a smile or smilingly cynical.
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Ah, but consider it this way. Cynicism is an expression of pessimism. Now a pessimist goes through each and every day expecting the absolute worst, and is pleasantly surprised when things don't fall apart. An optimist goes through the day believing in the best possible outcome, and is often sorely disappointed when the day fails to measure up. Now tell me which is the happier way to look at the world?
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe that. I have called it pessimistic optimism. I expect things to not be fantastic and when they turn out better than expected I can be happy about it.
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