NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

REGARDING HENRY
By Henrylito D. Tacio


NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE


Remember Pollyanna Whittier? The perennially optimistic lead character of Eleanor H. Porter's novel is so good that some readers find her exasperating.

Most people facing her adversities would become suicidal or a homicidal maniac: Not Pollyanna. Her answer to life's miseries is the 'Glad Game.' She always finds something to be glad about.

She melts the hearts f the heartless; finds a home for Jimmy Bean, an orphan she found in the street; is a marriage counselor and full-time social worker. Then, she is run over by a car. Her optimism is not daunted, even when she overhears a doctor say she will never walk again. Wrong. She gets right up and walks into the novel's sequel.

"Look at the sunny side of everything," Christian D. Larsen once reminded. "Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your won. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger."

And that was what Bill Eaton did when he lost his house. Here's what had happened, according to Dr. Harold J. Sala: "It all started following several wrecks of drenching rain, when California took on the appearance of an Asian monsoon. The rains finally softened the earth beneath Bill and Lee Eaton's family home, and a massive hole began to swallow up their four-bedroom house, which had been home for twenty-three years. That home was full of memories, too. Here, their family grew up. Christmases and birthdays, a wedding and scores of good memories were all associated with the pale green house."

To make matters worse, a wrecking crew got the wrong address and punched massive holes in the roof before they discovered they were tearing down the wrong house.

"It's not a disaster; it's an adventure!" That was what Bill could say. Talk about optimism. And what his wife felt about it? "It looks ominous to me right now," she was quoted as saying, "but it's not an impossible situation."

In his book, 'Heroes: People Who Made a Difference in Our World,' Dr. Sala asked: "How do people stay so positive when insurance won't cover the loss and they are not exactly rich?"

It's too hard to be optimistic if you are facing a disaster. But like Pollyanna and the Eatons, there are people who are optimists. From history, I could think of: Napoleon Bonaparte ("Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools"), George Eliot ("Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand"), Duke Ellington ("Gray skies are just clouds passing over"), Ralph Waldo Emerson ("Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year"), Anne Frank ("I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains"), and Benjamin Franklin ("Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight").

The other side of optimism is pessimism. The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds," says James Branch Cabell, "and the pessimist fears this is true." Albert Schweitzer differentiates: "An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise person is color-blind."

What is the difference of the two? At one time, a famous businessman came to Frederick Ebright and told him his solution for those off-days. "When I am feeling particularly blue," he told him, "I sit down and write a letter to a friend telling him all my troubles. But I do not mail that letter. Instead, I begin a second letter to the same person in which I carefully omit any mention of those misfortunes, but substitute for each one a bit of good news, no matter how small, which has come my way. By the time this second letter is written, a miracle has taken place. I actually do feel better. And, since a cheerful letter begets a cheerful reply, I have accomplished a two-fold purpose."

In other words, to quote the words of American author Joe Karbo, "The pessimist sees the bottle as half empty. The optimist sees it as half full."

The pessimist allows a disappointment in one area of his life to pervade the rest. For instance, he's laid off from work. The pessimist not only feels bad about losing his job, but he also starts to worry that his marriage is in trouble and his kids are out of control. On the other hand, the optimist doesn't let one setback contaminate his whole life. He may say: "So at the moment I don't have a job. My wife and I are still close, and my kids made the honor roll."

Yes, there are always two sides of a coin. You either look at the brighter side or the darker side. B.A. Botkin shares an anecdote which happened during a war and the Army was drafting young men by the thousands.

A young farmer walked down the street right in front of the draft board office. A neighbor told him, "You had better stay away; you might get drafted into the army." The boy, who had actually not even heard of the war, did not understand what it was all about. So, the neighbor explained the situation.

Hearing the explanation, the boy replied, "Well, I always figure I have two chances: I might get drafted and I might not. And even if I get drafted, I still have two chances: I might pass and I might not. And if I pass, I still have two chances: I might go overseas or I might not. And even if I go overseas, I still have two chances: I might get short and I might not. And even if I got shot, I still have two chances: I might die or I might not. And even if I die, I still have two chances."

I think I like the advice of Bob Losure. He said, " People have been wonderful to me in the good times and the bad, and I've come to believe that you do indeed reap what you sow. For those who constantly gripe about life, I turn and walk away. For those who speak negatively about people behind their backs, I move on."

Good advice, indeed.