Radical Optimism

The photo shows a shark swimming in the ocean. Being with sharks (swimming with sharks) takes a kind of radical optimism. Yes, I refer to Dua Lipa’s latest album.

Photo by David Clode at Unsplash.

Thanks to mind-body training, I have become an optimist. So, when Dua Lipa released an album recently called Radical Optimism, I thought to myself, “Yes to lighthearted dance tunes!” The Radical Optimism album cover shows the singer swimming with sharks, and I appreciate the sense of humor.

The opening song is called End of an Era with the first line being:

“What’s it about a kiss

that makes it feel like this

Makes me an optimist

I guess”

Listen here.

Like the whole album, the song is candy for the ears, which can be annoying and insensitive if you are in the middle of big intense and tragic energy. The songs are a child-like reminders about those amazing things in life like dancing, falling in love, or looking forward to something. Anything. This is a part of life that makes life exciting and worth living. It can give rise to gratitude.

Right now, being an optimist is out of fashion given world events, social iniquities, and unrest. It appears the popular view of the human condition is not favorable. Somehow being upset about what is happening in the world is expected and accepted from the adults in the room. Being upset about what is happening in the world communicates something about the importance of things and helps in understanding the gravity of the world situation.

Being upset has its place, but upset is not the only way to be.

Voltaire, the eighteenth-century French writer and philosopher from the Enlightenment period is famous for criticizing the phrase that came from German philosopher, Gottfried Leibniz: “This is the best of all possible worlds!” in the novella Candide. The joke in philosophy class is that when one philosopher declares, “This is the best of all possible worlds!” the pessimist responds: “Yes, You are right. This is the best we can do,” while the true optimist responds, “No! We can do better.”

So, optimism really is a way of seeing things that also helps you make your way toward a possible future that you actively take part in.  It is a looking forward rather than back, and it can organize your energy so that you know what to do. Per the words of linguist Noam Chomsky:

"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume there is no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope."

My study of the arts of Tai Chi and Qigong led to the study of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, and, in particular the writings of Zhuangzi, which are often humorous and thought-provoking. In previous blog posts, I have mentioned innocence and the sage as well as naturalness. Zhuangzi talks about effortless action, also known as wu wei, which is a kind of natural optimism that best translates to ease or “wandering without being lost” and more importantly finding a place to rest in the unknown, what has been called The Mystery. There is a sense of peace in accepting The Mystery and recognizing a bigger pattern that includes other people and other beings and other things.  It is the great play of life and existence that in a personal sense can give rise to a sense of play and ease in an ordinary human life.  The sense of play is about having a sense of naturalness and ease in life, which I wrote about in another blog post about “playing Tai Chi and Qigong.” Play and ease is not simply the activity of little children. In the greater world, play conveys a sense of durations and processes. In our common language we talk about taking a bigger view and “watching things play out.” In many ways, this requires a sense of being at ease and being patient in the moment. A teacher friend of mine calls this “holding intent,” and I like this phrase because it is brave and humble about not knowing what will happen next while keeping a vision of light and order.

So with the start of summer, there is a feeling of energy and light that might help in tapping into a sense of hope and optimism if not about world events then maybe about ordinary life. The long days with their bright sunshine can give you energy and hope. For some of us, summertime means getting to work and tilling the soil. Working on the garden comes to mind or doing long hikes or bike rides. For others, it is time for vacation and getting away from clocks and obligations. Children being out of school can have a sense of losing a sense of time and the summer being endless. Being optimistic may express itself in the ordinary gifts of being alive, which can be shared with others. The idea is, yes, having hope, but also having a vision that life belongs to everyone, and world situations characterized by conflict and suffering can resolve.

The phrase I have been saying in my mind when I see the news feeds or see people in the streets upset or homeless or overwhelmed or when I scan the news headlines and see the confusion and salaciousness and violence,  is “Even now. Even now. Even now.” And that is a reminder that even now, life is connected and whole, life on this planet continues as humans witness it unfold. Personally, this is also a call to make peace in my immediate surroundings and with my family and friends. That takes work and compassion, too, and it is work I am thankful that other people all over the world are doing. The basic idea is to realize that, since human life is really only a small part of a larger process of nature, there is always a possibility that human actions can be in accord with the flow of Nature. It can be as simple as watching this in your own personal life, sleeping, eating, drinking, working, resting, being and becoming and sometimes sharing these things with others or doing these very things at the same time that others are doing them.

To the ordinary optimism of everyday living!

Sleeping at the same hours, the many in this hemisphere on the planet

Seized by the urge to eat at the same time and lining up at the street vendor or kitchen counter for something to eat

Drinking water or coffee or tea or cacao and enjoying the bitterness, the sweetness, the temperature. Every morning all of us together doing this drinking from paper cups, ceramic, metallic. Some of us breaking the fast at noon or midnight and digesting.

Sweating and working, laboring, outdoors doing yard work or indoors washing or putting clean dishes away and wiping surfaces clean.

Clear the table to eat or to work

Sweep the floor again

Make your bed again

Wash your hands again

Turn on the tap and bathe your body again

Get tired and sleep

Care for life

Today and tomorrow

Looking both ways

Drive safely

Gaze at life

Smile and beam

Now and then and always 

-jw