View allAll Photos Tagged optimism
Shot with Pentax K5 and 16-50mm © Craig Lindsay 2016. All rights reserved.
Model:
Miss Honey Malone - www.purpleport.com/portfolio/honeymalone/
BASTROP, Texas – Despite earlier optimism, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department firefighters and other personnel were still facing a fire threat to historic structures at Bastrop State Park today.
According to TPWD incident commander Robert Crossman, all but about 100 acres of the 6,000-acre park have been blackened by fire, but firefighters have so far been able to save most of the Civilian Conservation Corps-constructed structures on the park, with two possible exceptions – two CCC observation structures believed to have been damaged. PHOTO BY CHASE A. FOUNTAIN/ TPWD.
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” - Helen Keller
Optimism, the opposite of pessimism, exemplifies a lifeview where one looks upon the world as a positive place.
LEMONS TO LEMONADE:
Shot from the window of my car in the pouring down rain. At first, I was going to delete this photo, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked the tipsy-angle and the background (with the lines of the house siding behind the daisies) So I played around with the curves in PShop til I came up with something I like - it has an almost surreal quality now, and the daisies are the focal point. What do you think?
Contrasting demeanours on these classical statues seen at a local stoneworks shop seemed to fit the Optimism/Pessism theme for Our Daily Challenge Mar 2.
This is a finalist in the This Is My Michigan photo contest sponsored by Consumers Energy Green Generation. Photo submitted by Dawn K. Learn more at www.greengeneration.com.
After weeks of living from my archive I own finally a new camera.
Hello world, I'm back to catch you !
Barbara Ehrenreich cuts close to home in this expose of the phenomena of positive thinking as it manifested in our culture over the last few decades. I have long needed someone to help me combat the shallowness of the universe-as-shopping-mall for your-visualized-dreams phenomena that I've been enduring in the world of the entrepreneur, but here she also reveals the impact it has had on the Christian mega churches, pop psychology, medical treatment and the financial institutions. For the impact on the latter this book is a pivotal read. Coming to the topic through her experience having breast cancer and being faced with relentless messages to be positive, she was prompted to flesh out this cultural phenomena, the impact of which has been sorely underestimated.
Barbara comes across as the quintessential academic curmudgeon in light of this topic, but the reader also ends up questioning cultural assumptions. Luckily there is historical precedence to give narrative arc to this cultural trend. As Barbara explains it, our famous American optimism is a reaction to an earlier hair-shirt wearing dourness that characterized the Calvinism of the puritans. Such was the relentlessly enforced soul searching, required by this religious teaching, to root out the evil within, that it was making people sick with fear and self doubt. Women would take to their beds swooning and some men too. Into this window of medical impotence came a practitioner touting positive thinking as the cure for all ailments. It didn't work on contagious diseases, but it did work on these psychosomatic cases and resulted in the founding of Christian Science.
Barbara also mentions that the industrialization of the country had taken away meaningful work for women in the home, leaving them bereft of the one thing that Calvinism touted which was hard work—meaningful work. Positivism became the new religion. She hints at how it was absorbed into the new consumerist marketing ethic, but that is not her focus.
In the realm of psychology, positivism prompted studies touting the health benefits of a positive attitude. Said studies often financed by the Templeton fund and having no actual medical backing. As for the Christian aspect of positivism, I was to learn to distinguish between the gay bashing Christian right and the corporate secularism of the new mega-churches preaching that God wants you to succeed and grow rich. This meshes with the corporate positive attitude message being work-shopped to the same brethren in their cubicles. The end result is that the working stiff blames himself for not having a job instead of organizing to change the system. The book The Secret is given full credit for driving home the message, to the entrepreneur on up to the CEO, that all would come to those who concentrated on envisioning our wants in technicolor.
In her chapter on how positivism brought down the economy, she convinces me that the captains of industry were truly in a collective delusion about how unfettered capitalism was the fool proof path to wealth for all . Any financial analyst daring to point out, for instance, that there might possibly be a housing bubble afoot was fired. The pressure to bring only good news was such that no one dared to suggest that prudence might be called for plus the CEO's were so insulated by their mega wealth that there was no way they would be able to sense what was going on at any level. I was inclined to think that they were just bent on consciously fleecing the public, but using Joe the Plumber as case in point, she parallels how the public was largely interested in joining the delusion that they, too, had a chance to such wealth.
In her conclusion she mentions the emergence of a doomster presence that is gaining popularity and that it is not a bad thing to examine danger as we look for solutions. We might even have a good time doing it she suggests.
COCA-COLA ART GALLERY
The ‘Coca-Cola’ Remix Art Gallery is a collection of images that has been designed by leading artists and designers. They have all depicted their own interpretation of the "Coke Side of Life" philosophy. The work of the artists reflects various styles, personalities and cultures, and all designs have one thing in common: they are colourful explosions of energy, optimism and happiness.
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
~ Helen Keller
Over the course of several months, I watched this parking garage be demolished. I took this picture on 12 July 2005. (Hence the added note.)
"Garage Closed During Construction!!
All Daily & Monthly
Customers are welcome
at our other convenient
facilities located just
south on Wabash.
We will reopen on
May 15, 2005
Park One, Inc. Apologizes
for any inconvenience
this may cause.
that life is all about. No matter how long a period of darkness you have been through, never feel down, and wait till the end with hope alive. Who knows there might be a mystic light waiting to welcome you. If you are dying every moment before you are actually dead, life does not make any sense.