Altar Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter Albritton
January 3, 2010
A
dose of optimism can help you turn problems into blessings
Optimism
is a good medicine. It has no bitter taste.
It can even cure bitterness. I have used it all my life and I can testify
that optimism can heal many of the ailments that bedazzle us.
Like many medicines
optimism needs to be taken every day. A dose a day helps you make a habit of
looking on the bright side of every situation. If you have to choose between an
apple a day or optimism, then choose the latter.
Of
course optimism does not make everything wonderful. It just changes the way you
respond to the strange things that happen to all of us.
Take your underwear
for example. You put your shorts on daily for years. It is a very simple task. Then one morning you
slip and fall, twisting your ankle. You have to use a crutch for several days.
But that is not all bad. Using a crutch reminds you to have compassion for
people who are truly crippled and have no hope of recovery. By controlling your
attitude you use your carelessness to make you a more caring person.
Optimism is especially
helpful in treating the dreadful disease called cynicism that causes its
victims to look for the gloomy side of everything. Cynicism thrives on pessimism but a healthy
dose of optimism will quickly cure it.
Optimism
does not make us immune to problems; it changes the way we look at problems. It
allows you to turn a problem into a blessing. It helps you to laugh instead of
cry. Actually that may be the best way to change a problem into a blessing –
simply laugh about the problem.
One
evening as I walked out of a Pensacola restaurant I felt a big raindrop fall on
the front of my shirt. I said casually to my wife, “I think it is starting to rain.”
She glanced at my shirt and doubled up laughing right there on the sidewalk, in
front of God and everybody.
One
look at my shirt and I knew why she was laughing. No, it was not raining. What
I thought was a big raindrop was a blob of pigeon do-do. I had been had by a
pigeon that thought I looked like an outdoor toilet.
In
that unholy moment I found it impossible to join my wife in laughter but I did
have several options. I could curse the pigeon or moan about my misfortune. Or I could wipe the mess off my shirt and walk
on. Like milk spilled on the floor there was no way to change what had
occurred.
So
at this point I let optimism take over. Pessimism could not help me; it would
have supposed the pigeon was on his way back to hit me with a second
dropping. Choosing not to whine about my
plight, I put a positive spin on it, telling my wife that I was a very special
person. Likely that day I was the only
man in America, or perhaps the whole world, whose shirt had been the landing
field for pigeon manure. She continued
laughing but I felt better. I had
refused to allow pigeon dung to get the best of me.
My
day of the pigeon took place more than 25 years ago. All these years I have
looked upon that incident not as a disaster but as a very special day in my
life. Think about it this way: it happened once and it has not happened again.
In 77 years there has been only one pigeon-dropping day.
What is more, I have
never heard of that happening to another human being. I have never met another
person who shared my honor. Considering that there are more than six billion people
in the world, and probably half that many pigeons flying around, you must admit
that I am a very special man. I wish now I had saved the shirt. I could have
displayed it in a glass showcase.
Laughing
at a problem can have long-lasting results. My wife and I laughed about the
pigeon muck then and every time we recall that day we laugh again. I can merely
say the word “pigeon” and my wife starts laughing.
So
I view it in a positive way. Despite the smell I turned my problem into a
blessing. Hearing about my being pelted with pigeon fertilizer had made other
people happy. So even on my worst days I can still be good for something.
Irish
blessings are special to me. I love this one dearly:
“May those who love us, love us; and those
who don’t love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn’t turn their
hearts, may he turn their ankles so we will know them by their limping.”
In
the spirit of the jolly Irishman who composed that prayer, I offer this doctored
version of another Irish blessing:
“May
the road rise up to meet you; may the wind at your back be so strong that
pigeons will not fly over your head. May the sun shine warm upon your face and
the rain fall softly on your fields. May you realize how blessed you are that
it was the rain and not warm pigeon compost that fell softly on your shirt. And
until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand and shield you
from the pigeon that wants to make you a very special person.”
Believe
me: optimism can turn a problem into a blessing. So have a good dose of it and
watch out for the pigeons in the New Year. + + +