Hopeless cynic or hopeless optimist?

Sometimes I am a hopeless cynic and other times I am a hopeless optimist.  It is like I have two mini-me's - a mini-optimist version of me on my right shoulder and a cynical mini-me on the left shoulder.  Sometimes one little mini-me will dominate the conversation for days, weeks, months.  But most of the time, the two little mini voices argue with one another.  The argument sounds something like this...

C: That stupid person almost just ran over me, the stroller, and the dog in their rush to get to work.  And I had the right of way.  The light was red and I am in the crosswalk! Do they just hate babies and puppies? So rude! Ugh, this might just ruin my day.
O: Maybe they are having a really bad day.  I am sure they did not mean it.

C: I hate watching the news.  Another shooting on a school campus.  That's it!  Little B is never going to school.
O: Maybe that person's mom did not love them enough.  Maybe they just needed a hug and no one gave it to them.

C: Wow, there is a lot of pain in this world. Bombings and car accidents.  Babies in the NICU. Cancer and wars. Lying politicians and cheating husbands.

O: But also a lot of love. Mommas with their new babies, full of hope.  The unfaltering love of a dog. A stranger holding the door open when your hands are full.  A man proposing to the love of his life. The way that old people smile at babies in the grocery store.  The neighbor who moves your trash can up to the curb after pickup.

C: I feel powerless to make this world better.
O: Start small.  Homemade cookies, a smile, a hug, and other little acts of kindness can go a long way.  Raise your little girl to be kind.  And only surround yourself with other kind people.  You just have to believe.


Now I have had my fair share of tragedy and pain in my life, but I also have been amazingly lucky too.  But I struggle with this duality of life.  When something good happens, is something bad waiting around the corner? Are people all good or all bad?  Or maybe a little bit of both?  And how in the world am I supposed to teach my little girl how to navigate this mess of a world when I can not figure it out for myself?


Don't get me wrong.  I am not having a bad day.  I am just having one of those days where I lift my head up from the little bubble that I live in and take a look around.  I appreciate what I have, but I am cautious and feeling a little small in this big world.  My normal M.O. is to turn off the news, focus on the good things in my life, and go about my day being kind to myself and others. But sometimes I wonder if that is ridiculously naive.


What do you think?  Is it better to be happily naive or realistically cynical?  How do you deal with the duality of our world?


Photo via Mary Ruffle