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Nice sentiment yet it depends on the nature of the calamity, as a natural optimist I've learned there are some things that are really hard to see the positives. Thousands of people simply washed away in a tsunami, for example, the positive are what? Reduces the population? No, the opportunity is to prevent the consequences of calamity.
Good point Jon. Not all calamities can be avoided or recovered from and not all preventative measures are effective. The difference between an optimist and a pessimist in the aftermath of a calamity is that the optimist looks at the destruction and decides they can and will move forward. The pessimist decides they have been beaten and gives up. You have proven that you are an optimist.
pajonica wrote: I don't know what i am. An optimistic pessimist perhaps?
That's funny, Jon. But it sort of describes Susan's position above as well. Maybe it's a real thing, to be an optimistic pessimist.
But back to Sir Winston's quote, it's the second part that I can relate to. Not me, by any means, but a couple of people I know are defeatists. They see an opportunity ahead, but shoot it down before giving it a chance. They play out the potential negative consequences in their mind, then decide not to proceed because it wouldn't work anyway. As he said, they see calamity in every opportunity.
Granted it is difficult to always see opportunity in the face of calamity, but opportunity does lurk everywhere. It's important to keep the mind open.
