Tag / thoughts

by Janet

Optimism

I thought I’d piggyback on my previous post (Naivety) so that I could bring some positivity back to the game. When I talked about naivety, I wasn’t expressing my beliefs (I don’t walk around angry) – I was simply pondering the word, it’s meaning, and what the word means to me.

That being said, it went a wee bit against my grain, which is normally optimistic. I actually think that naivety and optimism may have a few things in common, so this was the perfect “O” word for tonight.

Naivety appears to be the belief that people or things are good (or safe) – because the naïve individual is not aware that anything contrary to “good” exists. They lack experience.

Optimism, on the other hand, may be it’s more experienced counterpart. An optimist knows that bad exists, but he or she still believes that everything is (or will be) good. They believe this ‘in spite’ of the knowledge that bad things (or people) exist – not because they don’t have a clue. That’s where discernment comes in.

The definitions I found for optimism are “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something,” and “the tendency to be hopeful and to emphasize or think of the good part in a situation rather than the bad part.”

So… it’s pretty clear that optimism is not naivety. It’s about being deliberate. I’m pretty sure no one ‘chooses’ to be naïve – it’s like something we’re born with… something that escapes us as we learn about the world. But optimism appears to be a choice.

Anyway, I did an illustration for my thoughts on Optimism and I think it’s… OK. (I wish I could be more optimistic about it!) It’s not what I saw in my head but it will have to do. Perhaps if the girl were smiling it might be more convincing. Haha!

Speaking of things not looking like what we imagined… I went to my first painting class last night. Don’t ask me how, but I ended up with a canvas that was covered in lime green. Sopping wet with way too much paint. Every time I painted something I didn’t like I just brushed over the whole canvas and blended the colors together. So I painted A LOT.

I realized, while in bed, that what happened was the result of using a large brush. Of course you can’t paint details with a big brush… what was I thinking?! I’m used to my keyboard and mouse… not brushes! I’ve been… well… very naïve when it comes to painting! Now I know that bad painting exists (haha!), so I’m looking forward to trying again next week.

I’m making my way through the Alphabet Game a lot quicker than I’d intended because it’s giving me time to think before I go back to telling stories. I need to ponder more ideas on that end… and I’ll talk about it more when I write about the “P” word… (SPOILER ALERT!!)

………… Plot.

That’s about all for now. Thank you for reading or viewing, I hope you enjoyed something here!

I’ll see you soon!

by Janet

Naivety

When I think about the “N” word, Naivety, I get a little pissed off. In my young adulthood (which lasted well into my ‘old’ adulthood), I would always get embarrassed when I thought about the times that I’d been naïve.

I’m pretty sure there have been MANY of those times, because my naivety existed longer than a lot of people my age – even though I did a pretty fair job at pretending (or actually believing) that I knew it all.

My illustration depicts – spot on – what naivety looks and feels like to me. Maybe another word for it is blind faith. Sitting in the middle of the lion’s mouth (or whatever beast that is) and believing that it’s a safe place. Believing that people are… “good.” When I say it like that, I actually sound kind of cynical, but then again – doesn’t that make sense? Because isn’t naivety sort of the opposite of cynical?

The definitions I found of naivety were: “lack of experience, wisdom, or judgement,” and “innocence or unsophistication.” So… when you’re naïve, you lack discernment. You walk right into trouble, or danger, because you lack experience and wisdom, and you have this naïve belief that everyone (or everything) is… “good.”

Cynical, on the other hand, is “believing that people are motivated purely by self-interest” and “distrustful of human sincerity or integrity.” Couldn’t you say that people become cynical because too many assholes took advantage of their naivety!?

That’s why I get mad. Naivety gets a bad rap. But when you think about it… it’s actually no different than the innocence of a child. Something that many people strive for, because with that comes real joy and creativity.

So… I think the lesson I’ve found in my thoughts tonight is that naivety is not something to be embarrassed about. If anyone should be embarrassed, it is the lions (or the beasts) who took it away.

That’s my two cents anyway.

Thank you for reading!

I hope you enjoyed my thoughts, or my illustration, and I’ll see you again soon for the letter “O.”

Peace & Love!

by Janet

Imaginaries

It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.

Virginia Woolf

The “I” Word.

I have a tiny closet. It’s one of those old fashioned, “1930’s modest home” kind of closets. I put shelves in it for storage, which left me with nowhere to hang my clothes.

I ended up buying one of those large rolling wardrobe racks that stands about 7 feet high and it sits against the wall between my bed and my tiny closet. I often hang my hats at the end of the pole that juts out over my bed.

Every now and then, I’ll wake up from a strange dream, or just be in a weird place in my head, and I’ll look up without being fully conscious. Then I’ll panic, because this HUGE shadow of a beast (with a hat on) is standing at my feet, staring down on me.

To make matters worse, when it’s black as black in my room, something shines onto my ceiling fan causing it to glow ever so slightly (I think it comes from my air purifier).

Oftentimes, when I have these weird moments, I imagine it’s possible that this beast standing over me came down in the spaceship that is hovering above.

I know, I know… it’s all totally unrealistic. As much as I know that, sometimes I’ll reach for my cellphone and shine the flashlight around the room, just to be sure.

I did it the other night actually. It got me to thinking about light, and the things that are said about light. Cambridge Dictionary mentions the term “bring something to light” and defines it as “to cause something to be known.”

Those simple items in my room look so scary in the dark, but the light allows me to see what they really are. They’re not scary at all, they’re imaginaries. The monsters are in my head.

I think the same can be said about thoughts and emotions. Fear. Guilt. Shame. Bringing those things to light means exposing them. Talking about them. Seeing them for what they really are.

Yes, those thoughts and emotions really exist, just like my clothes rack and ceiling fan, but in the dark they look like monsters and beasts. In the light they lose their power.

Sometimes I wonder if that’s why God created confession. We need to get things off of our chest or they’ll turn into monsters. They’ll eat us alive.

We do the same thing when we take inventory in the program (not that I’ve been lately, I must confess). If you keep guilt bottled up, bad things can happen.

Maybe that’s why I share my thoughts all of the time, because it brings everything to light. It helps me see how things really are, not how I imagine them.

Anyway, I’m not sure what these thoughts might mean to you. Maybe you can relate, maybe not. I just think it’s fascinating to think about. I guess the TLDR would be… light is good. Amen.

I had a fun time with the image tonight. I’m enjoying these cartoonish illustrations because they are great stress relievers. You don’t have to worry about whether or not they look realistic because… hey, they’re not! Kind of like the beast in my room. Ha!

I started my next chapter of Barbershop Tales and it is almost finished. I tried and tried, but 1) I can’t find my ending, and 2) there was absolutely no way to fit an “I” word into it. And Imaginaries fit so perfectly with my recent ponderings!

So, I suppose that’s all for now. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my thoughts, or my image… or both. I’ll be back with my next chapter very soon!

Until then,
Peace & Love

Speaking of peace and love, I saw the movie Jesus Revolution which tells the story of Greg Laurie and the Jesus movement of the 60s and 70s. It was awesome. And they said peace and love a lot! 🙂