Breaking the Walls of Pessimism

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There was once a bitter man in a hospital room who spent his time whining about his illness and his health; by time, he noticed one of the other patients always staring out a window. “Ever since you came here, you’ve been staring out that window. What is it that you see,” he asked. “I see a garden with the most beautiful flowers you can imagine, I see the trees providing shade for the families who come everyday for a picnic. I see the beautiful vast sky, blue and majestic as ever.”

Everyday the bitter man asked his roommate about the view; it gave him comfort and took some of the sullenness away. A few months later the bitter man woke up and saw that his roommate was gone, he asked about him just to find out that the pleasant man has passed away. After a while the bitter man was strong enough to walk to the window and see that view he heard so much about. Shock overcame him as he stood next to the window with his mouth wide open, for there was nothing outside that window but an old brick wall.

Thomas Gainsborough, 1783. Rococo Style. Oil on Canvas
Thomas Gainsborough, 1783. Rococo Style. Oil on Canvas

“Be beautiful, and you will see everything that exists as beautiful.”  Like the bitter man, we all suffer from something in our lives that ruins our mornings and bring down our evenings. We all find the need to let out our frustration and whine about the situation we are in. It’s human nature. But unlike us, the pleasant man in the story got fed up of all the bitterness in his life. Enough with the sorrow, enough with the whining, if fortune isn’t coming to me, I’ll go to it.

Some might say that living a happy life when you should be miserable is like living in denial; but on the contrary, a person who chooses to be content does so because he/she are well aware of his/her situation. It isn’t cowardly to do so, in fact only a brave person can overcome all of life’s obstacles.

From the time we wake up in the morning, all we hear is people whining about the weather, work, school, politics, and so on and so forth. Halfway through our day we become filled with so much negativity that automatically the rest of our day doesn’t go well. At some point we need to learn how to let out all of the pessimism and divert our thoughts to something that will make us more productive and dynamic.

The simplest people are the happiest. Think about your life, if all you see is brick walls then you need to start breaking them to witness something better. Otherwise you should get used to watching that view for the rest of your life.

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5 Comments

  • I liked your article. I wish people tend to look into things positively instead of negatively. At work, there are a lot of frustrations and people should just learn to let things go. Be grateful that you're healthy, working, and living your life. Nice piece, gives a good prospect of life.

  • Beautiful article, I really enjoyed reading it. And it's so true sometimes you wake up with pleasant thoughts but face bitter people & your whole day is ruined, even worse when you sleep & wake up with such a feeling!
    It's good to surround oneself with positive people!

  • Although it is sometimes within our nature to think negative before reverting to positive, I think we all need to make a better effort in sticking to the positive rather than the more easily-identifiable negative.

    Good piece

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