Being optimistic myself I have always vowed to the power of positive thinking until recently when I came across this eye-opener argument I happened to witness. I should have been meditating before my mind went out on a rampage in quest of wisdom. I found myself in a aisle with closed doors both the sides. When I peeped inside the first room I saw these gentlemen having a naïve conversation. To my surprise they were Mr. Positive and Mr. Negative. I craned my neck inside to get in a audible zone.
Positive with lot of pride said “ Everyone wants to embrace me, they think I can get them anything they want”. Negative not even looking at him replied “ they have to embrace you, but I am almost inbuilt in their thinking. “ I was stunned to see the depth and the fact in the words and stepped inside and continued listening.
Positive shooted again “I make them excited, make them look forward, help them stand and make them move towards success.” Negative with a taunting smile argued “ all that if I allow you to enter in, I am deep rooted in them and they are deep rooted in me. They fear failure, fear rejection and hence fear moving ahead.” Positive interrupted “They write books on me” Negative restated “ Don’t you read newspaper, I make headlines” Positive Countered “They invest time and money to develop me in them.” Negative jumped to excitement “I come free, you are costly affair.”
The last line made me feel a little guilty, I remember paying 5000 for Sneh Desai “Positive thinking” class and the cribbed for days to spend for something that was already known to me but not in that flowery language that he spoke. When I diverted myself back to the conversation Negative has already taken the initiative.
Starring right in his prey’s eyes Negative said “you get in with lots of effort, I am there effortless, you have to be planted like a seed and have to wait till you germinate, I spread like a virus. You have to be nurtured and maintained, I am maintenance free.” Positive raised its voice “by the power of positive thinking, they become successful”. Negative sarcastically laughed and said “Can you guarantee success? But I can guarantee failure. So who is more powerful”?
With a brief pause before positive started again “My positive sense of humor puts a smile on any one’s face.” Negative peacefully answered “repeat the same joke again a few times and they will get bored and irritated, where as my one sarcastic comment is enough to hurt him for life time and will keep hurting him more and more if repeated.”
“ By being positive I help cultivate love in relationship”, Positive argued. Negative countered “ A lifetime of love? I can transform that in lifetime of hatred with one bad experience”. “So what”. Positive defended, “your life time of hatred can be erased with my one act of forgiveness”. Negative pounded on his voice “ Forgiveness? MY FOOT!
Man is no more forgiving , he seeks revenge, I am sitting inside him and pulling the strings .”
I was throttled hearing that, so far I was ok, till the last line made me feel ashamed. In spite of calling myself optimistic I have always sought revenge from those who have hurt me, until it took ages for me to realize that seeking revenge is not in my hand. Thank God! I am yet spared, remembering my note fossil, but before I could think more the conversation started again but this time louder and aggressive.
“I create trust and trust leads to peace”, Positive almost shouted while the Negative remarked “what trust are you talking about? It takes 100s of explanations and success to create trust, but one failure can break trust and raise 100 doubts”
Feeling guilty when I was about to go back in flashback of my experiences. Negative went on a firing rampage.
“You are required in quantity I can overpower you single handed. One matchstick can burn an entire field of hay and gallons of water is required to put it off. Add one drop of poison in a glass of nectar and the whole glass becomes poison. Add one drop of nectar in poison and it also become poison. One rotten tomato rotten the whole lot. Spit in a glass of water and it is not drinkable anymore. So who is more powerful? More impactful? More influential?
I was stunned and Positive was speechless. I could feel a sense of loss in him to argue any further but must be his nature that he wanted to end this conversation in a positive note so humbly asked negative “ Of course you have proved that you are more powerful and impactful but at least share its secrets with me? At least let me learn something positive since its in my nature.”
Curiosity overpowered me and stepping inside I silently tiptoed my way to the dark shaded corner of the room so I could also get enlighten with the Gospel. They noticed me crawling but ignored me as a bug on the wall.
By now pride has completely shifted from Positive to Negative. I could see Negative’s chest expanding and he was lustfully enjoying his success. He took his time to curve a smile which reflected his ecstatic joy over Positive’s surrender. He disclosed his secret arrogantly. “My friend Positive, your weakness is that you are very shallow by nature and my strength is that I am very deep by nature, so I am impactful. Your fault is that you are very passive by nature and my strength is that I am very aggressive, so I am influential. Your limitation is that you are too moderate and I am very much intense, I am like a bee sting and you are like a body cream. I penetrate deeper and stay longer, you swim on surface and evaporate. So I am more powerful. And last but not the least, I was very positive in my approach while arguing with you.” With that Negative winked at positive who stood frozen and stunned when he heard it all. Regaining his lost pride, delighted Positive in a sense of relief quoted “ so ultimately you too had to hold hands of positivity to succeed. But the only difference between you and me that your nature has more depth, aggression and intensity which from now on I’ll add to my nature and approach to succeed everywhere.
Negative now held the shoulder of now euphoric Positive and said “ if you want to be successful , my brother, you have only two options. Either stay away from me or keep me away from you.”
I couldn’t help admiring the openness and confidence of Negative, who now started walking towards the exit. He saw me and smiled. I out of respect and affirmation smiled back. And stammeringly placed a question almost in a suspicious tone “ Sir you revealed all your secrets out, Are not you scared of loosing out to him.? He laughed and replied “Never fight with a man who has nothing to loose, and I have nothing to loose” with this he briskly walked away to disappearance.
When I shifted my attention to Positive, his radiant face almost formed a nimbus. He started walking in hypnotic steps towards me. He came and embraced me and spoke in a tone to recount more of him than to me “I will stay away or keep him away, that Negative fellow. Even if I encounter him, I’ll be now more aggressive and intense to my approach. From now on I’ll make all my actions, thoughts, feelings and even experiences more deep intense and important. Even a small victory will be greatly celebrated. Appreciation will be in length and with deep honest pride. Expression of love and feelings will be more intense and dramatic. I immediately sprang up and added “ like a filmy style” he nodded in affirmation and continued “and more impactful, so even a bad experience could not erode off the good memories” laughing together we almost in a chorus said “ and laughter should be from the bottom of the belly whose sound effect would even wake up the neighbors. Every joy would be embedded and carved deep inside the heart and mind. Life would be respected and appreciated with more depth, intensity and profoundness.”
It was then when I realized the animal in me makes me negative, the man in me fights to be positive and the divine in me makes me faithfully positive. The journey is to evolve from animal to man and the then to steadily reach divine.
