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The Positive Power of Pessimism | Genesis 37:1-4; 12-28 | August 11, 2002 |
Keep on the sunny side,
Always on the sunny side,
keep on the sunny side of life.
It will help us every day.
It will brighten all the way.
If we’ll keep on the sunny side of life.
Can you imagine Joseph, from our scripture lesson, singing or whistling this little tune from the bottom of the pit where his brothers had thrown him? I don’t think so. Do you imagine that Joseph would have been cheered up if someone had crooned this message to him as he was trussed up and tossed on the back of a camel by the Ishmaelites to whom he had been sold as a slave? Probably not. If someone had yelled into the pit and told Joseph to try to look on the bright side, wouldn’t he have snarled in return? Let us face it. The sunny side of life is not immediately apparent in the pit where Joseph is. Nor is it always apparent to us.
Most of us have grown up being told about the power of positive thinking. We’ve been warned about negative outlooks and what some pop psychologists call “catastrophizing.” To have a successful outcome when facing a problem, we’re told that we need to avoid the bad and focus on the good, “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative” another song urges us. “Keep on the sunny side,” insists the self-help movement.
But hold on. Sunny, upbeat strategies don’t always work. In fact, they may make some people more nervous and anxious than ever. Are you one of those who, when asked if the glass is half empty or half full, thinks “what will I do if I knock it over and spill the contents?” There are those among us who are tired of always being told to “look on the bright side,” who are tired of being criticized for imaging worst case scenarios and who wish their optimistic friends would just leave them alone and let them be negative.
It is those people that Julie Norem, a professor of psychology at Wellesley College, describes and defends in her book The Positive Power of Negative Thinking. She writes, “Trying to squeeze everyone into an optimistic perspective can be both uncomfortable and unproductive, like struggling to stuff a queen-size body into petite-size panty hose.” In her book, Norem tells the stories of people who have harnessed negative thinking to increase their self-esteem and make significant progress toward their personal goals. They have used what she calls “Defensive Pessimism,” a deliberate, structured focus on dark contingencies. This helps people do their best by preparing for the worst. Imagine that you are being asked to give a public speech, something that produces anxiety in most people. The positive power of pessimism would encourage you to: First, approach the anxiety-producing task with lowered expectations, certain that it will go badly. Commit yourself to the idea that your speech will be an absolute disaster.
Second, imagine in detail all the ways in which it will go awry. Picture yourself losing your notes at the last minute, tripping on the way to the podium and being heckled by your colleagues.
Third, map out ways to avert each catastrophe. Make an extra set of notes, wear comfortable shoes and watch your step, prepare some self-deprecating remarks to charm the crowd. So you move from pessimistic preparations to positive outcomes. By reflecting on everything that might go wrong allows the world’s worriers to rehearse possible solutions so that they have a better chance of succeeding–making everything go right. This gives control over anxiety.
Considering the worst case scenario may also be an effective sales strategy. Airman Jones was assigned to the induction center, where he advised new recruits about their government benefits, especially their GI insurance. It wasn't long before Captain Smith noticed that Airman Jones was having a staggeringly high success rate, selling insurance to nearly 100 percent of the recruits he advised. Rather than asking him about this, the captain stood at the back of the room and listened to Jones' sales pitch. Jones explained the basics of GI Insurance to the new recruits, and then said, "If you are killed in a battle and have GI insurance, the government has to pay $200,000 to your beneficiaries. But, if you don't have GI insurance and get killed in the battle, the government only has to pay a maximum of $6,000." "Now," he concluded, "which group do YOU think they are going to send into battle first ...?" (Success Digest, September 22, 2000)
Of course, for the true optimists–people who like to get excited, psyched, and pointing out the sunny side of life–this defensive pessimism routine will probably produce more anxiety, not less. (Of course these attitudinal opposites attract and often marry each other!)
So which one do you think Joseph was?? The story of Joseph–often described by scholars as a novella–is one of the Hebrew Bible’s most finely crafted and engaging pieces of literature. Abounding in literary craft–foreshadowing, word plays, irony, suspense and vivid characterizations–the story of Joseph’s riches-to-rags-to-riches life story has been an inspiration not only for commentators and preachers, but also for novelists, poets, painters and composers. As the story begins, Joseph is an optimistic, narcissistic, dreaming, positive-thinking Pollyana who always imagines himself as top dog. He so annoys his brothers that they conspire to throw him into a pit and leave him to die before relenting and selling him to some merchants headed for Egypt.
You know the rest of Joseph's story if not from reading the book of Genesis then from the musical made from the story. Joseph is taken to Egypt where he is sold to Potiphar a highly placed Egyptian official who took a liking to Joseph and put him in charge of his household. Potiphar's wife also took a liking to Joseph only in a different way, and we have the narration of an episode in which a male "employee" is the victim of sexual harassment. Potiphar's wife does not take kindly to Joseph's refusal to become her "toyboy." When he scorns this powerful woman he has to flee leaving his coat in her hands. The result is that he finds his next home in the hellish pit of Pharaoh's prison. There he interprets dreams for two of his cell mates who are the Pharaoh's wine steward and baker, temporarily out of favor.
After the wine steward is restored to the Pharaoh's court he remembers Joseph's facility with dream analysis when the Pharaoh complains about a puzzling series of dreams: seven lean cows devouring seven fat cows and seven shriveled, thin ears of corn swallowing up seven solid and full ears. Joseph is snatched from prison and after a quick sprucing up is brought into Pharaoh's presence where he tells the king that God will give an interpretation. It seems the dreams mean that there will be seven years of abundant harvests followed by seven of famine. Joseph suggests that Pharaoh get a clever secretary of agriculture to prepare for this. The Pharaoh is so impressed by Joseph's helpful suggestions as to how to handle this that he makes this one time slave and ex-con his prime minister.
The grain storage program Joseph carries out means that Egypt can supply everyone's needs when the famine hits. Joseph now is in a position to help his own family survive. So this story offers an explanation of why the Hebrews are in Egypt. Throughout all this, Joseph blossoms like some ancient Cinderella. Sold into slavery by his jealous half-brothers, he winds up ruler of Egypt, so changed that they do not even recognize him when they show up, years later, to beg for food. (But that is another story.) In the end Joseph takes his brothers and his father into his household, moving the whole bunch to Egypt. With this the book of Genesis is brought to a happy end. The saga that began with banishment from the garden of Eden and violence between earth's first two brothers ends with a family reunion in a land of plenty.
Elie Wiesel says that this story is all about the human capacity for transformations.
"The tale of Joseph is the tale of a metamorphosis--no a series of metamorphoses. First, a family metamorphosis: a favorite child falls victim to his own prerogatives. A social one: a poor immigrant becomes a huge success in his adopted country. A political one: a servant turns activist and changes the socio-economic policy of the land. A philosophical or artistic one: the slave turns into a prince. And finally, a purely Jewish metamorphosis: a young refugee, without friends or connections, builds himself an astounding political career culminating with his accession to the post of chief royal advisor." (Messengers of God)
Perhaps one of the metamorphoses is from a pollyana optimist to a defensive pessimist–or what we might call a realist. He assumes he will never see his family again and cultivates new friends. He sees at each stage that he will have to reinvent himself. When the Pharaoh’s dream predicts a coming famine, Joseph focuses on what can be done to prepare for hard times. At the end of the story, Joseph tells his brothers that there has been the redeeming providence of the Almighty in all his trials. He says to his brothers that while they intended their action for evil, “God intended it for good.”
What shall we call this view that, as the apostle wrote, “All things work for good . . .?” (Note, not all things are good but they work for good for those who serve God.) I don’t think it is some wide eyed optimism. We need to be careful with this statement about divine providence and its variations "God will find a way." "The Lord will provide." "God won't give you more than you can bear."
Barbara Brown Taylor comments, "Platitudes like that have always irritated me. I know they are true. That is not the problem. The problem is how they are so often said, by people with big liquid eyes who smile knowingly and pat you on the arm. I know they mean well, but I rarely feel comforted by their assurances. More often I feel dismissed. 'There, there, dear, I know you're hurting, but I don't really want to hear about it. The Lord will provide. Run along now, and say your prayers.' " This does not take human suffering seriously. "Can you imagine someone leaning down over the edge of the pit while the brothers are busy bargaining with the slave traders and yelling, 'Don't worry, Joseph, everything will turn out just fine in the end.' " (Gospel Medicine) Worst case scenario thinking is not an abandonment of hope. To consider what might go wrong and plan for it is not a lack of faith. There is an Arab proverb which admonishes the faithful to “Trust Allah, but tie your camel.”
Realistic faith does not dwell on the negative but it is not defeated by disappointment. I saw a program last week about a group on the north side of Chicago dedicated to helping families with hospice care for children. It seems that it is very difficult for the medical community and families to admit that there may not be any effective treatment for some terminally ill children. As a result, some children must endure uncomfortable but useless treatments, and spend their last days in hospitals. This group of hospice care givers helps families to make decisions to allow these children to die at home. This is not negative thinking but providing the most caring response to negative outcomes.
Thomas Hart Benton, Senator from Missouri and legendary antagonist of John C. Calhoun, survived political confrontations and personal tragedies only to have his Washington townhouse burn to the ground shortly before he died. His daughter said of his reaction, "When my father's Washington house was burned it gave so much pain to everyone that both houses [of Congress] adjourned and the silent, helpless crowd bared their heads to my father as he came to the ruin of his home. 'It makes dying easier,' he said to me: 'There is so much less to leave.'"
The good news from the scripture today is that God is always creating light, not darkness. Pushing hope, not despair.
Amen
Joe Dunham
| Copyright © 2002 by Joe Dunham. All rights reserved. |