The success of optimism

"Why yes, (we young people) are disappointed. With the uncertainty, with the instability, with the economic hardship. But, mainly, not with them. Mostly, we are frustrated with the frustration of others. With the pessimism, with the cynicism, with the misery in large part that took root in the minds and lives of the Greeks so deeply that nothing seems capable of uprooting it. Not optimism, not positive thinking. Not even her success or anticipation. And why yes, nevertheless, we hope. How will we be able to?

We are optimistic. Some of us are optimistic by nature, others are optimistic, others don't succeed so much, but it is youth that weighs us all down, when those around us bombard us relentlessly with waves of pessimism.

That's why I came to the conclusion that what is worth saying today is this: being optimistic these days is a success. The success of optimism. And this success has a quality that makes it enviable: It is not a destination, but an instrument for the journey.

So, between the Laistrygons and the Cyclops of pessimism, the Sirens of futility and the Calypso of vision, we attempt a dangerous journey with the compass of optimism and the destination of our personal Ithaca.

So the trip is our greatest success. The success of being able to enjoy it – with optimism and curiosity.

But what about the destination? we ask as we go. Who is; Where are we going? "Only the weak and dull of the world know where they are going," writes Tom Robbins, "and such a journey," he says, "is seldom worth it."

That is why we hope and respond to the desperate voices and discouraging words with confidence and optimism.

We are told by some who have succeeded that the road to success has long been closed, while some who have failed tell us that the road was never opened. We answer them that success is not a road. It's a way of life.

Some quitters tell us how making it is hard while some people who made it tell us how hard it is for us. We answer them that in the face of such thinking it becomes even more difficult to fail.

We are told by some who have experience how the law of 20^u century is changing, it is being modernized, the working material is decreasing, the distractions are becoming more difficult, the deadlines are getting shorter, the unknown is coming and how the new is bad and we should be afraid of it. We answer them, how the unknown, the new – we are.

We are told by some politicians that it is not worth getting our hands dirty with the filth of power if we want to sleep soundly at night. And we - having spent many sleepless nights from anxiety and worry about our future - answer them that we now release them from this responsibility - let them sleep peacefully.

We are told by some who consider themselves successful that to make money today you have to completely write off morality and any kind of ethics. And we answer them that we don't consider this a success and that it's a shame that they think that's why we struggle so much.

We are constantly told how difficult things are. It's as if we young people live in a glass and don't understand it. Some even easily criticize our optimism as too much naivety. But inside they might confess, how they really envy our naivety.

But there are others who talk to us about dreams, about hope, about optimism. They tell us to believe in ourselves and how then we will succeed. "Believing in yourself is magic," wrote Goethe. "If you can do this, he used to say, you can do anything."

But there are others who tell us how fighting is sometimes fun and how personal success, no matter how small, has an intoxicating effect. Who among you does not remember how he felt when he made his first money, or when he went to University, or when he did anything that gave him personal satisfaction and pride? Who doesn't remember how they felt when they achieved something that others couldn't simply because they believed they could?

There are others who tell us how to be creative and love what we do. And how this is possible as long as we are passionate about our smallest successes. And how this creativity is the key to a balanced life between the need to make a living and the desire for spiritual integrity.

There are others who tell us that failure is also a path and that we should not be afraid of it. And failure is a path – as long as we don't take ourselves too seriously. Don't be afraid - we are told - to enjoy even the thorniest obstacle by shrinking it through the perspective of optimism and success.

We want these people next to us tomorrow. Let the rest banish us.

When the Athenians mocked Diogenes the Cynic that the Sinopeans had condemned him to exile, he replied:

"And I condemned them to stay there!"

This is how we, cynical, realistic, but optimistic, condemn pessimism to its miserable loneliness. Because that's the only way we can move forward.

We take little with us in this struggle, little we ask to be given. We don't get much money, nor many jobs, nor promising promises. Just a little; positivity, optimism and hope.

And we don't know if we will succeed. We don't know if we will finally find our destination or if we will drag this suffering place along with our success. But we know how we will try. We have already won this battle of optimism. We do not know if we will sail to Ithaca or if the ship of "it" will bend much sooner than the successive storms. But we will dare the journey.

 

And "if we sink", as Menelaos Ludemis writes, "let us sink in the ocean and not in the boat!"

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Excerpt from my talk titled

"The success of optimism"

at the event of the Bar Association of Veria

of October 3, 2015

for the feast of Justice.