COGITATION: Accentuate the Positive; Eliminate the Negative

 Why should we emphasize the positive? The positive, as we know, is the act of being hopeful about a situation or just simply emphasizing what is good or commendable; however, it is this type of positivity that is the basis of optimism.


Optimism is hoping for the best possible outcome of a situation-an outcome that is inspired by hope-the type of hope that prolongs a man's torment and never seems to cease. So this, my fellows, creates the question: Why should we eliminate the negative if being positive in an optimistic way prolongs a man’s suffering to the point where it never seems to cease? Why should we try to make something good of a situation that is seemingly utterly hopeless? Why trap ourselves in such a nonsensical manner when the truth is standing bluntly in our faces?


You remember Johnny Mercer’s song “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive” don’t you? Well, incase you don’t, the songs talks about emphasizing the positive and eliminating the negative, holding onto the truth and never bothering with the in between. This is something that we try to do in society today. Some of us would rather face the impending consequences or events, some would rather hope for the best, while others would try to accept the situation as it is yet still have some hope for a better outcome.


Demosthenes, a Greek boy born with a speech defect, had determined that he would one day become an orator. When he made his first public address the people began to boo him due to this disability, as a result, he went onto the shore, placed pebbles in his mouth and began to exercise his voice above the tumult of the waves.


Booker T. Washington, once a boy that grew up on a slave plantation, against all odds, became a teacher and constructed a school with the help of his loyal students.


Demosthenes, even though he had a speech defect, and Booker T. Washington, though he was faced with many trials and tribulations, both displayed optimism in that Demosthenes did not give up on trying to become an orator even though the people of his time discouraged him and Booker T. Washington, even though he was once a slave who had little money when they were emancipated, he became the founder of the Tuskegee College and a great educator, if not the greatest.


Now, as I have said earlier, optimists at times prefer to “bury their head in the sand” and trap themselves in lies to escape the horrors of reality, whereas pessimists have a better grip on reality and look at the negative of a situation. 


An optimist looks at a glass and say that it is half full, unlike the pessimist that looks at the glass and says that it is half empty. The optimist, as compared to the pessimist, shows appreciation for the half empty glass by saying that it half full, whereas the pessimist sees the same glass as half empty or focuses on the part of the glass that is missing.


Voltaire once said that optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable. Was he correct in assuming so? Is his perception of optimism correct? 


One may say that he was correct in his assumption when one may say that he was not. Voltaire, as you can see, was saying that optimism is basically the madness of claiming that everything is well when all things are not. One may say that he was talking about those that “see the world through the rose-colored glass”instead of the world for what it truly is, but I stand for those that “see the world through the rose-colored glass” for they are more open to the possibilities and do not disown things from existence that are absolute truths. 


Pessimists say “Black is not a color because it is the absence of light!”, but I say to them, “What is grey without black?” Shall it be called “partially white” because black is the absence of light? No! Why should you say that black is not a color because it is the absence of light when white is the presence of light, which is not a color in itself because it is just the presence of light. Do you not need white to make the colors brighter and black to make the colors darker? Do you not need light to create the other colors and black to darken them? 


Optimists see black and white for what they are-colors-not just absences and presences of light and darkness. Rather than erasing facts from existence how about adding to them? 


Daniel J. Keardon once said, “In the long run, the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.” He was truly correct in assuming so because optimists have a better outlook on things and have a better time since they expect good things to happen, whereas pessimists have a better grip on reality but don’t enjoy the ride through life.


However, at the end of every long dark tunnel there is a shimmering light of hope. It is this feeling that forces us to move onward toward a brighter and bolder horizon. Never look at a glass and say it is half empty for a true optimist sees it as half full.