According to the dictionary, rose-colored glasses are: a happy or positive attitude that fails to notice negative things, leading to a view of life that is not realistic.
Hmm… what is “realistic”, anyway? But about this – in a minute.
In my youth, people repeatedly told me that
looking at life through rose-tinted glasses, like I did, is irresponsible,
childish and will lead to disappointment, mistakes, blunders, blah-blah-blah,
etc., etc. According to them life was a battlefield, dog-eat-dog world; so I
had to forget all “that nonsense”, you know, “grow up and take life more
seriously” (although, why the assumption that I was not serious? I can be
serious and chipper at the same time), learn to calculate, manipulate, force
the matters, control events, grab life by its horns... What horns?! (sigh) What
is worse – at some point I believed them. Yup. I betrayed myself, took off my
rose-colored glasses and started getting ready for the battle. (Fanfares!)
Ah! It was exhausting, simply exhausting.
And, of course, none of it worked. It was a good lesson, however, and maybe if
I did not take off my pink-tinted glasses and did not try to grab life by its
horns (which is where?!!) – I would have never appreciated them fully. But then
again – who knows.
After many beatings I took from life,
after I became weary of not being myself, I realized that not wearing the
pink-tinted glasses and seeing the world “realistically”
does not make one any happier, even if they do reach “success”, fame, riches... – they still make the same mistakes, they still
stumble, they still fall, get up, fall, get up… The only difference is that it
is a lot more fun with the glasses on, when the world is more beautiful, colorful
and friendly.
OK, so what is reality? What does it mean –
leading to a view of life that is not
realistic? According to one of the definitions in the dictionary, reality
is: the state of things as they are,
rather than as they are imagined to be. Ambiguous much?
Fine, let’s do this, let's play their game: picture a rainy day…
Scenario 1: A man, who is in love, is
walking under the rain, he is happy, the rain is his friend, the man literally
dances in the rain.
Scenario 2: A homeless person’s cardboard roof
collapses because of the same rain, he feels forlorn, he curses his fate.
Which of these two scenarios is the
reality and which is imagined?
No, I’m sorry, but don't even try convincing me that reality is objective. It is absolutely subjective. Having a happy or positive attitude that fails to
notice negative things is crucial to me. Seeing the world through pink-colored
glasses may not change the events and the bad things are still there (although,
this is a very! arguable point), but
why would I pay attention to anything negative, when there is so much positive
around?
It is an “Every cloud has a silver lining”
kind of deal, or “One door closes, another opens” or “Nothing is bad without
being good for something” or “Չկա չարիք առանց բարիք“ or “Нет
худа без добра”.
Take your pick.
Anyway… There came a day when I put my
rose-tinted glasses back on, and the world around me started breathing
again. What a relief! I was always mature, but I plan not to “grow up” again, after all being
childlike is totally different from being
childish.
The thing is when kids play – they do so very seriously. They don’t think playing
is unimportant or meaningless. No, no, no. They consider having fun utterly
serious business indeed. My niece once said to me “I would like to read more,
but I am so busy playing, I just don’t have the time.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I hear ‘serious’
people saying, “it’s all very good, but life is not a game.”
Says who? Where do you get this
information? Is there a textbook about life you aren’t telling us about and are
reading alone, under your bed covers? (eye roll)
Hindus call life Lila – play. Jesus said “[…]
unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of
heaven”.
So, I say – let’s put on our rose-colored
glasses and have some serious fun.
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