Optimist
Here's my favourite folk tale.
"And so," said the King, "I sentence you to be executed. Sleeping with one of my daughters was bad enough, but two, and my wife as well!"
"Okay, Sire," said Egbert, "that's fine. Fair cop. But if you could find it in your heart to spare my life for just one year, I will be able to teach your favourite stallion, King's Ransom, to talk in that time."
"To talk?" asked the King, amazed. "In English?" (Yes, I know it might not have been English. Dramatic licence.)
"Yes, Sire," said Egbert. "In just one year I will teach your horse to talk fluently, in English."
The King was delighted. "Spare that man's life!" he exclaimed. "And bring him back, in a year's time, with my horse."
Egbert was led away. "You promised what?" asked the jailer. "To teach the King's horse to talk?"
"Yes, that's right," said Egbert.
"Why on earth did you promise such an impossible thing?" asked the jailer. "You know you can't do it."
"Look," said Egbert, "in a year's time the King may die. Or I may die. Or the horse may die. Or the horse may talk."
Now then. Egbert, dear reader, was an optimist.
I'm an optimist too. To me the glass is always half-full, not half-empty. I think that, in general, if I try hard enough, most things will come right. "It'll be fine," I say, often, when I haven't worked out the details yet but am pretty sure I'll be able to do it to everyone's satisfaction.
I suppose that's why, when things go badly wrong, I'm really very shocked. I lose my way for a while and it feels like the end of the world. But then, I gradually come out of it. I'm not thinking of anything in particular here - that's just how I always react to bad news. Of course, how long it takes depends upon how bad the news is.
I suppose we're all like that to some extent: it's just that, in my case, after a while, I go back to my usual "It'll be fine" setting. I feel very sorry for those people who don't.
Some people just seem to have been born expecting everything to be terrible. Others, of course, have come to expect it from various things that have happened to them over the years. Yes, I know I've been fortunate in very, very many ways.
And, of course, some people seem determined to make things go wrong no matter how well everything's set up for them, so that they can triumphantly claim disaster at every possible opportunity.
Optimist? Pessimist? I think a lot of it is just down to personality. And I think that those of us who were born optimists are very lucky indeed.
"And so," said the King, "I sentence you to be executed. Sleeping with one of my daughters was bad enough, but two, and my wife as well!"
"Okay, Sire," said Egbert, "that's fine. Fair cop. But if you could find it in your heart to spare my life for just one year, I will be able to teach your favourite stallion, King's Ransom, to talk in that time."
"To talk?" asked the King, amazed. "In English?" (Yes, I know it might not have been English. Dramatic licence.)
"Yes, Sire," said Egbert. "In just one year I will teach your horse to talk fluently, in English."
The King was delighted. "Spare that man's life!" he exclaimed. "And bring him back, in a year's time, with my horse."
Egbert was led away. "You promised what?" asked the jailer. "To teach the King's horse to talk?"
"Yes, that's right," said Egbert.
"Why on earth did you promise such an impossible thing?" asked the jailer. "You know you can't do it."
"Look," said Egbert, "in a year's time the King may die. Or I may die. Or the horse may die. Or the horse may talk."
Now then. Egbert, dear reader, was an optimist.
I'm an optimist too. To me the glass is always half-full, not half-empty. I think that, in general, if I try hard enough, most things will come right. "It'll be fine," I say, often, when I haven't worked out the details yet but am pretty sure I'll be able to do it to everyone's satisfaction.
I suppose that's why, when things go badly wrong, I'm really very shocked. I lose my way for a while and it feels like the end of the world. But then, I gradually come out of it. I'm not thinking of anything in particular here - that's just how I always react to bad news. Of course, how long it takes depends upon how bad the news is.
I suppose we're all like that to some extent: it's just that, in my case, after a while, I go back to my usual "It'll be fine" setting. I feel very sorry for those people who don't.
Some people just seem to have been born expecting everything to be terrible. Others, of course, have come to expect it from various things that have happened to them over the years. Yes, I know I've been fortunate in very, very many ways.
And, of course, some people seem determined to make things go wrong no matter how well everything's set up for them, so that they can triumphantly claim disaster at every possible opportunity.
Optimist? Pessimist? I think a lot of it is just down to personality. And I think that those of us who were born optimists are very lucky indeed.
posted by Daphne at 7:07 pm
5 Comments:
So how does it end ? The horse learns to talk, the King dies of shock, his son blames Egbert and has him executed and the two daughters get married, move to Alabama and raise a family of horse headed children ?
Does all that make me an optimist or a pessimist or an optimistic pessimist ?
I don't know what it makes YOU. I can tell you what it makes ME and that is LAUGH.
LOL @ Silverback!
I like Egbert's story. And hey, it bought him a year, didn't it?
I don't know ... I think there are those of us who swing between optimism and pessimism. There are times when I'm definitely an optimist and my mantra is 'It'll all work out and be fine' and there are times when I just can't believe that anything will go right ever again.
Does that make me a manic pessimist?
Nature or nurture? I am firmly of the opinion that a big chunk of who we are is born in us. We have little control. What made Gordon Brown so serious? What made Phil Jupitus so hilarious? They simply couldn't help it.
I have been known to say (although I don't know whether I really believe it) that it's better to be a pessimist than an optimist, because an optimist is frequently disappointed but a pessimist is sometimes pleasantly surprised.
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