Why Be Positive?

I decided to write a post in response to a recent comment to my previous post. The comment says that being positive is "too narrow and restricting." I believe that if more people were positive in this world, a lot more things would get done. Not only would more things get done, but, a lot of wars wouldn't happen. To use the analogy that the commenter used, if certain people had been positive and not been looking for revenge, the Mountain Meadows Massacre wouldn't have happened. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to be negative about what is going on in the world. However, if you have a positive outlook on life, things go a lot better. I once had a very smart person tell me that if you smile it makes life go better. I have found that to be the case.

Let me give you an example from the life of my son. He went to Camp Steiner for his first week-long scout camp. This was one of the weeks last summer when there were a lot of thunderstorms. My wife and I were worried about him getting soaked and not enjoying his first week-long scout camp. When he came home on Saturday, we asked him if he had fun. He responded that he had had a great time. We then asked him if it had rained much. His response to this has been very enlightening to me. He said, "No, it didn't rain much at all, only about half the week." That's a positive outlook on life. I can tell you that his life goes much better than some of the bloggers out there. It does take more effort to be positive, but, it does make life go much better. It doesn't take much effort at all to be negative and as my previous post says, it's more childish also.

Be Positive!

One of the cultural beliefs of the department that I work in is titled "Be Positive." It goes on to say, "I contribute to a positive and optimistic work environment."

An article in Saturday's LDS Church News (see here, subscription and login required) made me think about this cultural belief in relation to my blog posts. Am I truly contributing to a positive on-line environment? The article says, "In this society, with its newfound high tech forms of media, there seems to be a new license to blast away at will, especially anonymously. Certainly authors of angry comments on the Internet can't be as hateful as they sound. Can they? Or are they more childish than children?"

I'm going to try and take this issue to heart and be more positive in my posts. A wise rabbit once said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."