Are you positive that you are not negative? I decided a while back that I would make a real effort to think more positively about things. I would try to concentrate more on what’s good about something or someone, rather than what’s bad.

It seemed that the effort has made me more negative than ever. Perhaps that is because my positive efforts have made me more aware of any of my negative tendencies.

One of the more successful people of today, Oprah Winfrey has been quoted as saying, “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.”

The staggering problem here is how does one change one’s attitude, or how does one become humble enough to suspect they may have a poor or unproductive attitude in the first place. Many of us have become experts in defense of our attitudes. We just think we are what we are, so live with it!

A director of a chorus I sing with once said, “Nobody sings a wrong note on purpose.” I believe it is also true that nobody does anything that they truly believe is wrong to do. If it appears to be wrong, they generally have what they consider a good reason to do it. An often used rationale is “Everybody is doing it,” or “They deserved it.” To cover all their bases some say, “There is nothing either good or bad, but only thinking makes it so.” It seems that whatever rationale we need to justify what we want, it is available.

Therein is the puzzle of the centuries. What is right, and what is wrong? What is good, and what is bad? We know that just doing what feels good can be a careless path to unintended suicide. (Smoking?)

In my youth there was a sign in The Main Diner which said, “As you travel on through life friend, whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole.”  I used to wonder about that. I didn’t think the lesson was clear, except to simply say the doughnut was nourishing and the hole was not.

I’ll not try to offer a solution on what is good or bad. I’ll just let my fingers wander across the keyboard. A good way to find out what I actually think myself is to start typing.

It takes a clear unbiased mind to think clearly and understand. Everything we see has positive and negative sides, including you and me. I have said that negative thoughts in your mind are like sand in the bearings of your automobile. I’ll add that habitual negative thinking is a form of mental malfunction, a type of indigestion in the brain, clouding the thought process.

Negativity stresses a uselessness of faith, is a damnation of hope and teaches charity or love to be useless. It leads us to give up our objectives in a downward spiral to nowhere. It is keeping the eye upon the hole, rather than the doughnut.

It may be an oversimplification to say, “Think positively,” but aren’t we are all a bit too obsessed with what’s wrong? Sometimes we even resort to negative solutions to fix it. There are people in this world who believe they will bring on paradise, simply by killing everyone who disagrees with them. That is an extreme example of being overtaken by negative thinking. I have an acquaintance who will tell you what is wrong about any opinion you may express.

Perhaps we should bring back that bestseller by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale titled, “The Power of Positive Thinking.” I believe I still have that somewhere in our home library. I guess I’ll have to take a look for it. In these troubling days that seem to be churning in negativity, I can certainly use it. May God bless America.

Richard Westlund is Collins resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com