Sunday, August 18, 2013

Fortune Cookie No. 4 - Soon, you will receive pleasant news

Soon, you will receive pleasant news.

Time out! Fortune cookie fortune writers of the world, are you really becoming this indifferent in your fortune writing?! Where's the heart? Where's the passion? Where's the dedication and devotion to your craft? Pardon me if I complain for a minute, but this just might be the most benign, lazy, and generic fortune I have ever received. Don't get me wrong, I'll take it to be sure as it definitely beats,

"Soon, you will receive horrifying, devastating, and depressing news." 

But in all honesty, this fortune of receiving pleasant news can refer to any positive event happening everyday and in anyone's life . . . and hopefully does apply. As I've stated before, I'm not asking for any and all fortunes to be so specific as to declare the actual predicted event in vivid, descriptive detail, including the exact moment in time it will occur. But a little originality and excitement in the fortune would be appreciated, and with some amount of specificity. And yes, I am making a bigger deal out of this than is necessary, but oh well.

What then is pleasant new?
Well, doesn't this fortune really come down to what one considers pleasant news anyhow? And does this pleasant news need to affect me directly to qualify as "pleasant"? As the saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or "Don't judge a book by its cover". For example if I read or heard of a news event where a mother and child were reunited after years of separation, well that is pleasant news to be certain. But it doesn't necessarily have much of an direct impact no my life. Or I'm sure hearing about someone finally achieving regularity after days of irregularity is pleasant news to the sufferer of said affliction or malady, but maybe not so much to the rest of us. Yet, on the whole, to argue this announcement isn't good news, not sure we can.

Another way to view this good new/bad news dichotomy is to see news receiving in terms of not receiving pleasant news, but rather in not receiving unpleasant news. Maybe no news often times really is good news, or in this case pleasant news.

Of course I don't sit around expecting and awaiting bad news. But honestly, at times anyhow, I also don't expect to receive good news either; at least not unexpectedly. Sounds a bit like the glass half full/half empty, in a way (and yes a glass with half water has the other half filled by air so the glass technically is full). The pessimist is the one who not only awaits the unpleasant news, but seeks it out. The optimist on the other hand, not only expects to receive pleasant news, but they search for it and share it. And when possible, they create pleasant news for others.

Why focus on bad news anyhow? What does it accomplish and who does it benefit? I'd rather be the good, see the good, and share the good in the world.

Question: So staying with the looking for and receiving positive news theme then, which is better, to receive expected pleasant news or to receive pleasant news unexpectedly? Maybe since good news is just that, good news, it doesn't really matter how/when it is received. Both are desired and appreciated by the pure in heart. The key of course is to be grateful in receiving pleasant news, no matter how and when it is received and to then acknowledge this gratitude and do something with this pleasant news. Share it!

It's also been said that sometimes it's more about what they don't say. I mean, maybe when receiving some unpleasant news, we can still find some "pleasant" news. Maybe not. That's the optimist in me.

So maybe the true fortune here has been a mindset reversal on how I perceive and receive news. From now on I will continue to accept the fact that bad things happen, but I'm going to be more positive in my expecting good news and in finding the positive in the news I receive.

What pleasant news have I received recently? I've certainly had some pleasant news, but let me get back to you . . .








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