What is optimism? Ask an executed man.
Being with the children today reminded me how difficult I find unstructured activities. The ages range which means what they want to do and their level of concentration varies. How come I would be more at ease with a plan that with just letting them be? Says something about me and being in company particularly if I feel responsible. That’s it I don’t do ‘responsible’ very well, I take it too seriously.
When Cee was growing up I always felt better with a plan. We visited many Youth Hostels in the South of England as that way we were having an adventure together. I still needed to be stimulated rather than be responsible for it.
I got little of the ‘Meeting for Worship’ as I was out with the children which meant I was more attune to the material in The Friend
I was reading it with a coffee at the train station when the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood out ( see featured photo).
The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but is a source, of vitality and hope where others have resigned. [Optimism enables us] to claim the future and not abandon it.
It reminds me of the verse in Hebrews which reads, “ Faith is things hoped for not yet seen.”
Reading the words reminded me of the power of words both to encourage or discourage. Are we better with language or not? Is it language that creates a past? No, we remember, language gives us a vehicle to communicate the past, present and future. It is powerful though it is not the only way, we communicate by how we behave. Indeed how we behave is much more powerful than words. Yet it is almost always to words we grasp to communicate the why of our behaviour.
Bonhoeffer was executed so was he better with optimism over the impending doom? If he lived resigned to his death he had already died. He chose to believe in a better future and that optimism kept him alive.
Being optimistic seems similar to believing in God I would rather have it and live believing than the alternative.
Certainly today when the future can seem uncertain the words of Bonhoeffer remain alive even though he is dead. His optimism stopped him being robbed of his life before his time. We have a future and an optimistic one at that.
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