SOMETHING BETTER THAN OPTIMISM

Are pessimists disillusioned optimists? Are optimists just people who haven’t been through a critical mass of pain? Is there a better and more realistic approach to life than either one of these?

While studies seem to indicate that optimists have the better time with life, and I would in most senses recommend that point of view, optimism can be rooted in facts that can change. Disappointments can devastate the optimist, sometimes more than is tolerable. I suggest there is an even healthier perspective.

Beyond the optimist’s confidence that good will come and suffering and loss will decrease, and beyond the pessimist’s certain knowledge that the optimist is wrong, and that suffering and loss WILL increase, is a truer wisdom visible in the whole argument of Jewish and Christian scripture. Let me summarize it like this:

Pain and loss will always be with us, and
will increase with years and knowledge,
but life, even at its most wounded,
will always be sacred and beautiful.
We live in a love and grace
bigger than any pain we can ever know.

I have watched many saints transcend constant horrific suffering, receptive to God’s presence, appreciative, keenly aware and attuned to the sacred, transcending situations in a way that I can only term mystical. [I will write another time on finding communion with God’s pain at our suffering.]

In your new year, may you be blessed, healthy, relieved of much stress, financially stable, and satisfyingly engaged and happy! But may you grow deeply and vitally into the love of God that is, to quote the bible, “sufficient for you” in all situations. May you choose always to see God’s sacred presence in all those you meet and in every situation you find yourself in. God does not desire our pain or our suffering, but God is always here. Always. And where God is, there is beauty and mercy.

Do well in the new year.