Is there a problem with being too positive about everything?

That just hit me like a lightening rod just now.

I was reading some of the posts and comments on various blogs in the "Why most leadership sucks...." dialogue. Then I noted some of the blogs in my blogroll at Bloglines. The question that heads up this blog post is what hit me!

I may have to spend some time thinking some more about this but I so see this trend running rampant through certain blogging communities right now. It seems that many bloggers are writing about a particular concept called "Attraction".

Who started it is anyone's guess. The "Law of Attraction" has become something of a minor credo and faith statement for many bloggers. There is much exegesis being developed and refined in clarifying what it actually means to hold to the "Law of Attraction".

In a nutshell, the "Law of Attraction" implies that everything in the universe is a whole and that we are not indivisible or separate from everything else. Everything is enveloped ergo whatever you think is whatever you get as what you think will be reflected in the environment around you.

Christian theology screams that this is wrong of course but I don't think I'll go off on a tangent trying to prove or disprove the errancy of the attraction thinking thing from that stance. Even I have been caught up in the mindset of the "Law of Attraction". My mind is split into a warring tribe of two hemispheres on it though. I do tend to struggle with identifying what is purely selfishness in my wanting to "attract" certain things and what is genuinely healthy positive thinking.

Christians, on the whole, can be rather morose...(I have no idea why, not all of us are like this but the stereotype is warranted even so)... so anything that gets them to lighten up and get a grip on being joyful is a good thing. Still; there is something about the "Law of Attraction" model of being über positive about EVERYTHING that seems to be a little naive and even perhaps a little dangerous.

We surely don't WANT to attract bad teaching, bad leaders, bad weather, bad Presidents or bad wars! But are these things going to change just through the process of our collective Pollyanna-ering? I don't think so!

People is people.

We are all of us...each and everyone of us...flawed.

One of the intrinsic issues with human beings is our sense of our SELF. We protect, nurture, invest and progress our SELF in the world much more than many of us care to admit. We assume ourselves to be gods in and of our own right and we nearly all of us think that everyone else "should" think the same we do about everything in our periphery of focus.

I do think there is a time to be subjective about our reality and I do also think that there must be times when we have to be objective about our reality. It's a question of balance sure. Some people caught in the objective reality trap tend toward being very cynical and too matter-of-fact to the point of unempathy. Some people also get caught in the trap of being so subjective about things they start to sound a little too other-worldy to be Real.

Of course this is just MY perspective on things.

It's GOOD to focus on the stuff that is lovely in our lives. We've done little of that in our past history as a modern culture. But its also WISE to not get too hung up on trying to see everything as a part of some hyper spiritual exercise in Subjectivism too. I didn't just "rez" this computer through attractive positive thinking... we bought it after long discusson on its merits with cold hard cash that we earned through very objective hard work.

I buy the occasional lottery ticket and can attract for all I'm worth, the the winning first division prize, but I rarely get it let alone any prize at all...no matter how positively I think about it - (and many who follow "Law of Attraction" thinking would say that that argument is faulty anyway).

Sometimes it just feels damn GOOD to be grumpy and angry and full of "bah humbug" about everything that we haven't got or want or need!

As I said... People is People. We do as we do for our own interests despite all our nattering about doing it for the "good of all".

It's when we have a focus on a real Someone OUTSIDE of our SELF, and we forget to be so egocentric and all-knowing and all-seeing and approach life from the perspective of keeing it real in grateful acceptance and trust along with humble awe... then we tend to stumble on happiness in spite of everything bad that is currently happening to us. And yes... even Christians need to realise this too!