I learned many years ago that for every positive there is a negative. Great efforts were put forth to identify the positive as separate from the negative. There were negative numbers. Electricity survived on positive and negative. The laws of physics seemed inundated with positive versus negative. Philosophy dwelled upon the positive-negative conflict. Society rallied around the positive and negative circumstances of life. Religion extolled the virtues of the positive and the condemnation of the negative. Sociologists and psychologists have masterminded the positive/negative categories. Such intense training forced my mind to cogitate on this manner.
Slowly, I began to realize that negative wasn’t always negative. Furthermore, negative was often quite relative. A lot of that which was considered negative was not ‘negative’ at all. Little things were the first clue.
Mathematics: a negative number actually had a positive value.
Batteries: the negative terminal had equal power compared to the positive terminal.
Philosophy: the Chinese characters for crisis actually mean dangerous opportunity.
Tornadoes: that which we consider a tragedy is a whole new way of life in nature.
Religion: God will strike you down when the God I knew only did “positive” things.
Nature: Death was a negative thing even though the harvested grain could be used to plant a whole new crop the next year. Furthermore, everything we ate to stay alive had to have also been alive at some point in time and eating rocks did not work well.
Common sense: Lemons are used to make lemonade.
Work: No Pain, No Gain – I prefer Not Fun, Not Done!!
So what is with all of this negative stuff???
God is positive; life is positive; nature is positive; I am positive!! Maybe I just never got the hang of suffering or I may have a low tolerance for pain. Of course, I do have a recommendation for those who enjoy the negative.
Upon arising in the morning, place one hand on the kitchen counter and smash it with a hammer. With the pain now well “in hand,” the rest of the day must of necessity be positive gain.
You don’t like the idea??? Oh come on now.
You’re just being negative about it!!
© Dr. Jon C. Fulfs – June 1999