The Winner Is . . . by Mychael Danna and DeVotchKa

(from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack                    “Little Miss Sunshine”)

There is only 1 way to look at this world . . .

 

. . . and that’s . . .

 

. . . POSITIVELY.

 

Let it sink in . . .

Let it bring back all the times that you have overcome life’s challenges . . .

Every. Single. Time.

YOU believed that YOU could overcome THAT challenge from the get-go.

And when you fell?  Or cried?  Or wanted out?  There was someone close by who reeled you back in and reminded you of who you were and are to the core.  There was a prayer that brought you back to your senses.   There was a random phone call from a family member or a knock at the door.  There was that perfect sunset that connected all the dots for you.  There was a co-worker with wine and laughter.

I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE in every ounce of positivity in this world.  Even in the most negative of times, I now see the positive.  And most of that time that positivity brings out laughter!  Excelsior!  If you will!  A concept from Silver Linings Playbook that cracks me up beyond cracks me up.  A story of thanking God for a 5 out of 10, praying over bets and parlays, setting up the ju-ju just right, and in the end, finding peace in the ultimate silver lining: that some are certifiably crazy and the rest have not been certified yet.

Then, Little Miss Sunshine.  Oh my.  An all time favorite, of which this score takes you through the ups and downs of the most dysfunctional family on the planet.  In listening to the progression of keyboard, to piano, to rhythmically riveting snare drums, you can vividly visualize that horrific yellow van putting its way across the country with probably only 1 positive force out of 10 negative ones.  Ironically, the father was a motivational speaker with no motivational fire.  But his fist-clenching faith gets them to California where his chubby, little daughter will stick out like a sore thumb amongst the vanity of the pageant world for tots.  And where is the silver lining?  The silver lining happens to be just that.  While following what seems to be an endless adventure, you are rooting for the daughter to fully embrace her little, chubby, genuine nature against the backdrop of mystically, tanned 7-year old tots, one a la mode at a time.

The positive part about thinking positively is that it turns into FAITH.  When you choose to believe in positivity, you are choosing to believe – period.   And belief, over time, becomes consistent, which then solidifies into FAITH.  Just when you thought things couldn’t get more positive within the realm of positivity, it did.

Therefore, when we believe in something, we internally have faith in it.

A dream.  A vision.  A job.  A person.  We can have faith in each of these consistently.

However, believing in people seems to be the biggest challenge of them all.  We tend to have more faith in ourselves than in others.  For example, when we want a particular job we get ignited with some kind of overly, positive flurry to make it happen to the point of jumping through networking hoops.  There we are, hitting up old professors as if we never lost touch, striking up conversation with strangers in our work field, dropping in on a buzz-word slightly related to what we do: “ Yes!  Education Reform!?  Do you know so and so!?”  We slap on some really great smiles and slide right into that program or position we wanted, the whole time on a high of belief in our gifts, talents and creatively-wired schmoozing skills.  Never once did we doubt all the hoops we jumped through or stop to think that we weren’t going to get the gig.  Our heart was set on it with some kind of positive force honing in on the position and visualizing ourselves already sitting in the desk chair.  But, do we believe in others the way we believe in applying, what can only be described as the Roxbury Brother, High-Energy Networking & Schmoozing Technique?  Do we have that instinctive inclination to believe without a doubt in our friends, our spouses, our parents, our siblings, our kids, our co-workers, our bosses, or even the students we are teaching?  They could use a little Roxbury faith as well.

Society has us thinking that believing in others is different from believing in ourselves.  However, I would like to argue that in the end, it’s ALL the same thing; it’s ALL belief.  Believing in ourselves is actually JUST AS HARD.  The only difference is that we think we have the inside scoop since we can see into our own gifts and talents.  Suddenly, this makes us think that we can’t believe in others because we do not know their potential.  Well, sorry, we don’t 100% know ours either – we only try our best to visualize it and put belief into what we see and feel for ourselves.  So why not do the same for others?  Being blind to the ins and outs of someone else’s gifts and talents should actually inspire us to root for them all the more and pray for them constantly with no doubt in the back of our prayers – pure prayers of faith in that person.

On top of thinking it’s pointless to pray or believe in others, we get sucked into the propaganda about TRUST.  Do we trust other people?  Society tells us not to trust certain people and to look out for Red Flags.  Yes, true – don’t marry these ones and stranger danger of course.  But let me tell you a little about trust.  BELIEF COMES BEFORE TRUST.  Belief builds trust.  Belief helps others trust.  When we believe in ourselves, we are able to trust ourselves and thus, we must believe in others in order to trust others.  So, even trust stems from positivity.  When we say, “I don’t trust her,” we have already initiated a negative block where we no longer attempt to believe in the person one bit.

So, there you have it.  Believing in people is actually on the same level as believing in ourselves.  All we have to do is make the attempt to believe in the first place, which originates from thinking positively.

This world is full of people at all different stages in life.  We give everyone negative labels from liar to selfish, from sociopath to psycho, from mental to lazy, and so on. Apparently it makes us feel good to compartmentalize everyone in the world.  But, nothing feels better than having full faith in the person next to you and full faith in yourself – that is peace on Earth, right there!  Doubting others only fuels more doubt.  The same way the positivity can keep increasing within positivity, the negativity keeps increasing in negativity.  We don’t always do it on purpose.  Sometimes we are just hurt and stricken with shock that the world could “do such a thing to us.”  But in actuality, we are swimming in the negativity for our own reasons.  Imagine if we thought positively about one another a little more, then believed in one another a little more, and ultimately had faith in one another consistently?  The world would have a lot less “liars” and “socios” wouldn’t it? – A  world with no need for labeling in the first place.

A fun way to pull ourselves out of negativity is to find the truth in the negativity and recognize how hilarious it is.  It’s actually hilarious that people can be so selfish and make such poor decisions that hurt others in contrast to being the positive, loving people we are called to be.  When you think about it, negativity is just a high level of being ridiculous.

 

Grumpy Cat is one of the funniest things I’ve seen since John Belushi’s “Bad Luck of the Irish”.  Both comedic catalysts point out the irony in negativity.   It’s as if they pull out the truth from a negative statement, flip it around for all to see, then laugh directly at the societal truth.  It’s a beautiful slap in the face to negativity – I love it.  And THAT is how we must look at the world – as if there is a societal joke to be pulled out of every negative choice made.

I believe THIS is the age for finally being done with negativity – an age of Kale, Gluten Free Products, Streaming TV, Start Ups, Amazon Grocery Delivery and Parks and Recs.  From food, to career, to TV we are positively transforming and squeezing out the negativity.  So, I’d say it’s time to throw in the towel of negativity once and for all and take one giant step towards believing in others and ourselves completely and consistently.  And when we pick up a doubtful thought or someone else inflicts a poor decision on us, we will put their face on a calendar, slap a witty slogan on it, and turn it into a year round document worth of laughter, jokes, and hilarity for all to reflect on.  Cheers to pulling out the positivity, and believing in ourselves and others once again!