The Right Perspective

I was thinking about this quote looong before the news hit this week, but how well-timed on my part to pick Dr. Seuss as the inspirational quote for this week.  😉

Our world is a mess right now, but it is becoming more obvious by the day it seems.  This week we are “discovering” the racism behind the beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.  I’ll be honest and say I haven’t looked up these claims or deciphered through the piles of junk news to find the truth.  But I will say this: Dr. Seuss’s literature shaped much of my childhood, and was largely involved in helping me learn how to read.  In my own experience, Dr. Seuss was not racist.  I did not learn to be racist from him (frankly, no one else has either) and in fact, what child would be so socially and emotionally inclined as to glean from his books that he is a racist and is teaching racist doctrines?

I’ve had a brief rant and now I shall move on. 🙂

In considering the beauty of Dr. Seuss’s work today, I will share with you my favorite quote.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Another derivative of this line that I’ve seen is, “Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it happened.”  What a neat perspective!  There are almost always two ways to look at things: pessimistically and optimistically.  I tend to be a pessimist, so this was a wonderful reminder that there is usually another way to see the good in a situation.

With that in mind, go find the smile in your Tuesday.  Oh, and go read a book. 🙂