Wednesday, November 06, 2002

The Agenda of the Extreme Optimist

or, why people are afraid to be compassionate



The theme for this week is compassion and optimism. I think these are actually the same thing.



People fear that being an optimist (i.e. having compassion) will cause them to:

1. Lose their credit cards

2. Wear ugly shoes

3. Meditate



Solution:

Encourage optimism where you see it by:

1. Spreading optimistic information (noticing that we are barraged by negative information)

2. Noticing optimistic moments out loud

3. Finding out what causes optimism, like alcohol.



Later I will address the sport of Extreme Compassion and why it threatens, in particular, people who are witty and charming.