Pollyanna

My friends often mock me for being a Pollyanna. And truthfully, I can't disagree with them. If you look up Pollyanna on Wikipedia you'll read "Research indicates that, at the unconscious level, our minds have a tendency to focus on the optimistic while, at the conscious level, we have a tendency to focus on the negative. This unconscious bias towards the positive is often described as the Pollyanna principle." I, on the other hand, quite consciously focus on the optimistic side. When something bad happens I always look for the good in it. And if I can't find the good right away, I tell myself that everything happens for a reason and I'll just have to wait to find out why.

I am always glad that I have this kind of attitude because I can't stand hearing about people wallowing in misery and seeking pity. Yes, of course, horrible things happen that are next to impossible to find any good in. And thankfully I have never had to suffer some sort of unspeakable tragedy that has unhinged me enough to shed my Pollyanna ways. In fact, I consider myself a very lucky person. Sure, I never win raffles, my name has never been picked from the thousands of tickets I leave at Trader Joes for bringing my own shopping bags and I don't even bother buying lottery tickets anymore. But I have a wonderful husband, two amazing children, a beautiful house and awesome pets. I even love my old car. I'm very lucky indeed!

I believe that keeping an optimistic, glass three-quarters full attitude actually keeps bad things from happening. And today I believe it even more. Today, my husband got into a car accident with a semi-truck on a snowy road far from home. Thankfully my husband is a great driver, and thankfully he made some evasive moves that definitely kept this accident from becoming tragic. And although his car suffered some serious damage, he is very lucky that he walked away unscathed. Basically there were three options for him today: 1. get completely crushed/wiped out by the jack-knifing semi-truck, 2. get pushed over the guardrail and straight down the side of a cliff, or 3. manage to position his car perfectly between the guardrail and the out of control semi-truck so that only the side of his car was damaged. Thankfully my husband scored that third option! So when he called to tell me what happened, I immediately saw the good in all this and told him he was sooooo lucky.

I sleep well every night knowing that my life really is awesome. All I wish is for everyone to share this same kind of optimistic attitude with me. Pollyanna was a young girl with infectious optimism, and I for one am okay with being called a Pollyanna.