Thursday, June 23, 2005

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

I am indebted to my Australian friend Keith Ready for today's wonderful words of wisdom. Keith sent me this story from his terrific web site A Gift of Inspiration http://www.agiftofinspiration.com.au/index.shtml

I simply adore this story and I am sure we all know both types of people described here.


Making the best of what you get!

This is a story of identical twin boys. One was a hope-filled optimist. 'Everything is coming up roses!' he would say. The other twin was a sad and hopeless pessimist. He thought that Murphy, as in Murphy's Law, was an optimist.

The worried parents of the boys took them to the local psychologist.

He suggested to the parents a plan to balance the twins' personalities.

'On their next birthday, put them in separate rooms to open their gifts. Give the pessimist the best toys you can afford, and give the optimist a box of manure.'

The parents followed these instructions and carefully observed the results.

When they peeked in on their pessimistic son, they heard him audibly complaining, 'I don't like the colour of this computer. . I'll bet this calculator will break . . . I don't like this game . . . I know someone who's got a bigger toy car than this . . .'

Tiptoeing across the corridor, the parents peeked in and saw their optimistic son gleefully throwing the manure up in the air. He was giggling. 'You can't fool me! Where there's this much manure, there has to be a pony!'

Author Unknown

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