At War With Words and Labels

Is a “realist” (someone who accepts a situation as it is and is prepared to deal with it accordingly) a “pessimist” (someone who has a tendency to see the worst of things or believe the worst will happen and there isn’t any way of turning things around)?  Is a “realist” (someone who accepts a situation as it is and is prepared to deal with it accordingly) the opposite of an “optimist” (someone who sees an opportunity in every difficulty and situation)?  Is a realist an “idealist” (who envisions or see things in an ideal or perfect manner)?  Or is the optimist an idealist?

Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  Which am I?  Am I a realist, a pessimist, an optimist or an idealist?  Which attitude or label fits you?

I am a realist.  I see and accept the fact that I am now in the so-called “Golden Years” (call it “old age” if you like).  How will I deal with the situation? Will I blithely continue to repeat with Robert Browning, “The best is yet to be,” (which smacks of pseudo optimism and idealism) or will I face old age without gullibility, and without evasion, accepting the impediments and difficulties of old age?  I have accepted it and am prepared to deal with it.

I am a pessimist.  These so-called “Golden Years” aren’t what they are chalked up to be.  I can’t do what I use to do without significant consequences.  I climbed a ladder to clean out the rain gutters the other day and have suffered aches and pains ever since.  Samuel Johnson wrote of this—“unnumber’d maladies his joints invade.”  There isn’t any way of turning the lack of energy, the dimming eyesight, or the arthritic pain into what use to be no matter how many pills I pop.

I am an idealist.  I still see things as they ought to be rather than what they are right now.  I can’t help myself.  All manner of things and life ought to be better than what now is.  Without such a vision, we perish.

I am an optimist.  I see a “full glass” much of the time even in old age.  I treasure being liberated from work and having the time to read and think without being captive to a schedule. Many worries that consumed me in those yesteryears do not plague me now.  I see opportunity even in old age—and that is a form of realistic, pessimistic, idealistic optimism.