Day 70 – 17 April 2014 and day 15 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.
I am a congenital optimist, I just can’t help myself. Maybe I was born with it. My glass is always half full, the grass is always greener on my side of the fence and life is a string of opportunities just waiting to be taken.
My wife says that I would see good in Hitler but I know that’s not true.
Being an optimist is great. Life is always on the up but I’m thankful that everyone is not like me. Life would be awful if I was surrounded by clones of myself. Instead of everything being fun it would be miserable as those things we hadn’t seen came up to bite us.
I’m reminded of the writings of Primo Levi, an Italian who was captured and confined in Auschwitz concentration camp. He said that those who were optimists found it the most difficult to come to terms with their position, not that anyone found it easy. They were always expecting something to happen, some white knight to ride over the horizon or an outbreak of sanity that would see the world return to normality. Of course it didn’t and after a while they would give up and would become victims of the dreadful atrocities carried out there.
The pessimists on the other hand, whilst not having an easier time, were at least able to resign themselves better to the daily trials and tribulations of what became known as life in the camp. Their expectations were low, mishaps and set backs were to be expected and they were more able to settle into some sort of routine.
According to Levi, being a pessimist was of benefit within the camps. I don’t know, I was never there and hope that such things never happen again but his words, so many of his words have stuck in my mind.
I have often wondered, as a zoologist with an interest in evolution, what pressure would lead to pessimism surviving as a trait. I guess I know now. All people have a role to play and the best of all possible worlds is when we have a mix of skills, interests, gender, race, creed and colour.
Some of my best friends are pessimists or pragmatists as they prefer to be known.
Seven meetings today and all at County Hall. The morning was taken up with 121s and a meeting about bringing the residual bits of ICT from across the organisation into my service. Unitisation is the name we use for this process. It is not a land grab or an attempt to build an empire but rather a way of being consistent throughout and ensuring the correct split between the supply side of ICT (our domain) and the client side.
We launched our fourth Digital Durham cabinet, the second this week, this time in Shildon. We’ve been criticised for misleading people by claiming it is fibre broadband when we have been clear throughout that we are offering a fibre to the cabinet solution or FTTC. The truth is that we are trying to solve a social problem and not a technical one but some people get very hot under the collar about such things.
Happy Easter everyone.
Learning points for today: I don’t want to be one of those people; the detail is important; timing is everything and; worrying doesn’t help.
Today’s enjoyment rating 8/10 – went home with a lot still to do.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 