Positive Outlook
Well, hello there boys and girls. I’m back, another year older (almost) and hopefully not quite as cynical as I was last time I posted. Reading back over some of my old posts makes me wonder how I didn’t slash my wrists in a fit of depressive despair. That’s not to say that I’m a totally reformed character, I must admit. Life is still hopelessly complicated and stressful – though with any luck not for much longer, of which more later – the crazy Labour party are still in power (I was going to say “in control” but I doubt they’ve been in control for…erm…well…at all, really), and public freedoms are being eroded more and more with each passing day. But ho-hum. Such is the nature of the modern world, I guess, like it or lump it. I shall be lumping it, for now at least.
There are plenty of things in the world to get mad about – Obama’s desire to scrap the space program, Brown’s desire to reduce the number of smokers, the way people get excited about the way house prices are on the increase despite the fact that it’s still an artificially inflated bubble that’s got to burst sooner or later, the Criminal (in-)Justice System, the quality of schooling, the rise and rise of bureaucracy, the increasingly pompous and holier-than-thou attitude of those who advocate global warming, global warming itself, the bloody-minded stupidity of other people, the unrelenting selfishness that pervades society, the budget deficit, government campaigns, the state of the NHS, the growing intolerance of religion in any of its guises, the VAT increase, junk mail, unsolicited sales calls, and many many more which I shall probably incorporate into future posts – but a positive outlook can do you the world of good.
Take me, for example: I was starting to get quite despairing last year, for so many different reasons, but now I am much happier. For a start I am on the verge of sorting out my debt problems once and for all. If all goes well then I will be a truly happy man. For another, I have discovered the joys of Playstation 3, which is one of the reasons why I haven’t posted anything much this last year – when you start playing Fallout you just can’t stop. And with Fallout: New Vegas on its way I may just disappear for another six months at some point in the future. Another thing is that my random surfing of the internet led me to one of these Motivational webpages. Now, I am the first to stand up and say that these types of drivel are, well, just that really: drivel. And the page I read was written in that unpleasantly chirpy and upbeat way that these pages usually are. But, much to my surprise, it did get across a few ideas that struck me as being very important. Familiarity may breed contempt, but misery breeds…well, misery just breeds. It’s very easy to fool yourself into thinking that you’re worthless, the world hates you and you deserve all the shit that gets thrown at you. The thing is that the world is a pretty contemptible place, and it can treat you very horribly, but everybody is worth something, very few people deserve shit. For some reason the realisation that I was worth something and that I deserve better just made me feel…happy. I hadn’t felt happy for a very long time.
Right now I still have a certain degree of stress in my life, and I’ve got some armpit-deep shit I’ve got to wade through, but I am actually happy about the prospect of what’s on the other side. I’ve managed to get out of the doldrums, the belief that after wading through this sea of shit there would be just more shit to contend with. I’m actually starting to make plans again – I’ve hated making plans, rebelled against making plans, for most of my adult life, but now I am starting to see the possibilities in the near future.
And now my very own blog is starting to sound suspiciously like the drivel to which I earlier referred. Under the circumstances I shall call an end to this post. The latest episode of QI is awaiting me on BBC iPlayer, and I must answer the call.
More from me soon, though.
Promise.
(Or is that a threat?)
