ihavebeenfloated

I feel a bizarre kinship with today’s Quote of the Day on My Google.

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come. – Peter Ustinov

Now that I look at it for a while longer, I’m a little baffled by it. So the point of living and of being an optimist is to be foolish? I would think it would be the other way around: The point of being foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come, is to be able to live and to be an optimist. Right? OK, I feel better now.

I get by almost solely on the notion that the best is yet to come. Admittedly, in the last year or two, it seems like things just always get worse and worse, and the magic is that each time they do, I am able to take it even after I declare that the last time would be the last straw for me.

I’ve been called a fool many times over now for saying things such as, “I believe that the world is not an inherently bad place,” or, “The capability for good exists in all people, even the bad ones,” and even, “I don’t watch broadcast news because it doesn’t convey life as it actually is. I believe that life is, overwhelmingly, a happy experience, but you wouldn’t know it by watching television.” I’ve had people end up shouting at me because of my extremely hard-nosed stance on the fact that the world at large is not a frightening and dangerous place.

I wont disagree, however, that I am foolish for believing these things. Even I, Mr. Sunshine, is afraid sometimes. Walking up to an ATM late at night, all alone except for one lone car idling in the parking lot behind me, makes me extremely nervous. This is common sense, though, for if I was never afraid, then I would be extremely prone to being victimized. There is a very fine line to my belief. When living in Chula Vista, I would often leave the door wide open to either the house or my car when I would go inside for short periods of time. Admittedly it was usually minutes, but some people find that sort of thing extremely dangerous. “You’re practically leaving an invitation open to an intruder or a murderer!”

My reply to that is, of course, “Well, if this person was going to intrude or murder me, a closed door wouldn’t stop them,” which I only partly believe most of the time. Admittedly, I’ve never had anything truly horrible happen to me. I’ve never been victimized in any way, and who is to say that my opinion on all this wouldn’t change after such an occurrence?

I think, when it comes down to it, I’m just too lazy to be excessively cautious about anything. I like to leave my windows rolled down a bit when I go into a place to eat, keeps the car cool. Sure, someone could slim-jim my car, but they could do it anyway. I like to leave my windows open in my room all the time even when I’m not there, keeps the room cool, and sure, someone could easily cut the screen and come in while I’m gone, but they could do it while I’m there if armed properly, and they could easily do it while I’m gone as well. I like to leave doors unlocked if I’m going to be gone for just a short period, just because I’m lazy and trusting of the world, and even if I locked them, someone could still break the locks and come in and steal shit.

The question is, then, am I just so paranoid that something terrible is going to happen that I’ve just given up trying to prevent it… or do I really believe the world is a good place?