Optimism

Beloved Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley passed away two days ago. For me, he has been the prophet that taught me through my teen years and up into my mid adult life. He had an amazing ability to captivate everyone that was in a room. My first year in DC, I had a next door neighbor come to visit during conference. He walked into our home, did not want to bother us, and almost excused himself. However, President Hinckley was speaking and he too became engrossed with the prophet's genuineness, wit, and love. He sat there and hardly blinked through the talk. After the talk, he stated that he had never seen the President of the Church but that he now had great respect for him and that he was amazed by his presence.

As I have spent some time thinking about Pres. Hinckley's impression on me and my life. I was struck with how he taught me to be optimistic. I am generally a very optimistic person. I always have been, even when I have witnessed terrible acts of violence, poverty, drug use, child abuse, and despair. I have always felt hope that things can and will get better. For a while in my life, I wondered if I had a Pollyanna syndrome. However, I figured that if Pres. Hinckley, a man of great foresight and wisdom, could have optimism than I could too. Here is one of my favorite quotes by Pres. Hinckley on optimism:

"We have every reason to be optimistic in this world. Tragedy is around, yes. Problems everywhere, yes. But look at Nauvoo. Look at what they built here in seven years and then left. But what did they do? Did they lie down and die? No! They went to work!.... You can’t, you don’t, build out of pessimism or cynicism. You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen.”