I don't necessarily propose that you have to find a silver lining in every cloud. Imagine being in a business where that was your job! Yeow!
"Hey, Russ, an 7.4 earthquake just hit Rome and Vatican City is just a pile of rubble and everything combustible is burning. Gimme a silver lining, stat!"
"Hey, Russ, George Bush just announced that he's suspending the Constitution and imposing martial law (You suppose there are guys named Marshall Law? What kind of jokes do they grow weary of hearing when they first meet new people? How about the stupid jokes he'd have to hear as he left on his honeymoon?) on the entire country and banning elections until the war on terrorism is won and everyone has to attend a worship service once a week and the IRS will begin collecting tithings at the first of the month and the money will be turned over to the church of your choice, but taxes will be reduced 5% because all welfare will be abolished and if you need help, ask your pastor, priest, reverend, rabbi, mullah, sensei, bishop, holy man or Katrocket. Quick, where's the silver lining?"
When Gilda Radner was told her cancer had returned and that she had only months to live, she went on tour. Here's one of the jokes she told (and I'm paraphrasing): A woman goes to the doctor and is told she has a super-advanced cancer and that she only has 12 hours to live. Since it's 4:30 p.m., she leaves the office, refusing to pay the bill and telling the billing clerk, "... So sue me!" She rushes home and begins preparing dinner for herself and her husband. He gets home and as they're eating she tells him about the doctor visit and that this is their last meal. He's heartbroken. They talk and talk, except that at 10 p.m. when he has to watch Sports Center.
Then as they're getting ready for bed, she asks him to make mad passionate love to her. He starts to beg off, telling her he's just not in the mood. She explodes, thinking she's perfectly entitled to do so. How can he be so insensitive, she laments! This is her last night alive and if she wants him to make love to her, he should! He reminds her of all the times she begged off, because she wasn't in the mood. She keeps playing the death card as she tries to get him to change his mind. Finally he says, "Hey, cut me some slack here! It's not like YOU have to get up in the morning!"
The ultimate in finding a silver lining is probably when you can laugh at your own death/annihilation. So far I've been able to muster a snigger. (Chocolate covered Sniggers? My humor inspires only niggardly sniggers, snatcherly.)
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4 comments:
I prefer to think that I can find the cloud around any silver lining, but I guess this could work, too.
I'd say Tony Snow seems to do a pretty good job of it.
"That's not what we said."
"Really? We've got videotaped evidence of you saying these exact words."
"Well, I've never seen the tape, so..."
"We'll play it for you right now."
"We've got to move on, busy Presidential schedule and all."
You may be confusing pessimism with denial.
If a person who says the glass is half full is an optimist and a person who says the glass if half empty is a pessimist, what do you call a person who says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be?
If clouds had silver linings then they'd fall on our heads and kill us all: that's reality.
It's not so much denial as a refusal to admit the existence of a dark (mushroom?) cloud. As for who says that about a glass, I'd say it's someone who has no ideas and wants to change the debate up: a politician.
I usually date girls who, in this debate, say "There's a glass? I can smash that and cut myself with it!" I think that's a true pessimist.
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