{"id":809,"date":"2007-09-19T07:11:39","date_gmt":"2007-09-19T12:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=809"},"modified":"2022-01-02T07:38:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T12:38:00","slug":"im-an-optimist-i-just-have-to-work-at-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=809","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m An Optimist&#8211;I Just Have to Work At It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In case you haven&#8217;t noticed, I try to remain <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/opinion\/keillor\/2007\/09\/19\/september\/\">fundamentally cheerful<\/a> and optimistic on this blog. I figure that the world is full of enough overwrought, rant-filled, spiteful fare, so I aim to provide a little counterweight. Plus, it&#8217;s an exercise in self-discipline, for I am by nature fundamentally pessimistic and sometimes downright morose.<\/p>\n<p>So, this morning, I pause to take in a lungful of crisp, autumn-tinged air and give thanks for the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>My wife, who rather than committing me to the local mental hospital, playfully joined in my craziness last night and helped me track down and destroy that nasty wood roach (the mere sight of which caused me to go apopleptic) which managed to slip inside when I opened the door to the garage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Number One, who, despite being involved in two, count&#8217;em, TWO car wrecks (plus a close encounter as a pedestrian with another car which he has not seen fit to tell me about yet&#8211;I have my sources) since arriving in Tuscaloosa, is nonetheless in good health. I think.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Number Two, who, despite engaging in various envelope-pushing activities such as climbing and caving without proper gear and instruction and apparently wearing a bacteria-laden shin guard in last weekend&#8217;s soccer tournament in Memphis, merely has an infection in his right leg which can be treated with antibiotics at home rather than requiring hospitalization. We hope.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Number Three, who, because it his nature to go all out under even the most trivial circumstances, made a goal-saving slide tackle in the box in a match that didn&#8217;t matter one wit last night and came away with only a deep muscle bruise rather than another broken leg. Or at least that&#8217;s the way it looked when he went to bed last night.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And if that little exercise doesn&#8217;t do it, all I have to do is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2007\/US\/law\/09\/19\/oj.simpson\/\">scan the morning headlines<\/a> to realize how full my life is.<\/p>\n<p>When you get right down to it, I&#8217;m an optimist&#8211;I just have to work at it.\n<\/p>\n<p><!--b71b6cdc8844c03c7383a1ddbc2527de--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In case you haven&#8217;t noticed, I try to remain fundamentally cheerful and optimistic on this blog. I figure that the world is full of enough overwrought, rant-filled, spiteful fare, so I aim to provide a little&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,23,48,1,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-current-events","category-family","category-general","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9524,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/9524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}