This is not a common musical combination.
But if you watched any of the 44th annual Grammy awards, you couldn't avoid noticing that the "album of the year" category was defined by the most incredible diversity. Bob Dylan's album "Love and Theft" was competing with India Arie's rhythmic "Acoustic Soul," and the potent rap of OutKast's "Stankonia" was up against the bluegrass soundtrack to the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Rap. And bluegrass. Together for the very first time.
There's a cut on "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". It's called "Keep on the Sunny Side," by A.P. Carter.
No doubt you've heard this traditional country classic:
Keep on the sunny side, Always on the sunny side, Keep on the sunny side of life. It will help us every day, It will brighten all the way, If we'll keep on the sunny side of life.Don't laugh -- this ended up winning the Grammy for "album of the year"!
Most of us have grown up with the power of positive thinking. To have a successful outcome when facing a problem, we're told that we need to avoid the bad and focus on the good. "Keep on the sunny side," insists the pop psychology and self-help movement.
But hold on. It ain't necessarily so, according to Julie Norem, author of a highly counter-intuitive book called The Positive Power of Negative Thinking. Sunny, upbeat strategies don't always work. In fact, they may make some people more nervous than ever.
For some folks, the only thing that can bring a sense of calm is to directly contemplate negative outcomes. This deliberate, structured focus on dark contingencies is called "defensive pessimism."
Norem's novel approach can be reduced to a three-step mental rehearsal. Imagine, for a moment, that you are being asked to give a public speech, something that produces anxiety in most people. The positive power of negative thinking encourages you to:
First, approach the anxiety-producing task with lowered expectations, certain that it will go badly. Commit yourself to the idea that your speech will be an absolute disaster.
Second, imagine in detail all the ways in which it will go awry. Picture yourself losing your notes at the last minute, tripping on the way to the podium and being heckled by your colleagues.
Third, map out ways to avert each catastrophe. Make an extra set of notes, wear comfortable shoes and watch your step, prepare some self-deprecating remarks to charm the crowd.
You can move from pessimistic preparations to optimistic outcomes, in three easy steps!
Of course, for true optimists -- people who like to get excited, psyched and pumped up before a challenge -- this defensive pessimism routine will probably produce more anxiety, not less. But for anxious people, Julie Norem believes that this unusual method can offer a sense of control, however limited, over uncomfortable circumstances.
There can be positive power in negative thinking. At least that's the approach Joseph came to embrace. It wasn't easy. Here's an optimistic nice guy, a dreaming, positive-thinking Pollyanna who so annoys his brothers that they conspire to throw him into a pit and leave him before relenting and selling him to some merchants headed for Egypt. "Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites," says the most sympathetic of his siblings, "and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh" (Genesis 37:27).
Talk about your dysfunctional families. To get through this experience, Joseph must have gone through an attitude adjustment. His dreamy, positive-thinking optimism is just not going to work as he is being sold into slavery. If Joseph had tried to use defensive pessimism as a strategy, what would he have said to himself in his mental rehearsal?
He becomes a partner with divine providence, a partner with what is traditionally defined as the "care and help" of the Lord.
Cooperation with God is crucial, especially when facing potentially awful outcomes. The development of skills, ethics, morality and faith is the way we form a partnership with providence and align ourselves with what God is doing in the world. When Joseph was dragged down to Egypt, he remained faithful to the Lord, strong in the face of sexual temptation, courageous in prison and consistently discerning and wise in his dealings with Pharaoh.
The result was that he became Pharaoh's right-hand man, the most powerful figure in the land of Egypt (chapters 39-41).
Evil is never the final outcome when faithful people and God are providential partners. Sure, there are going to be struggles along the way, such as Joseph's long stretches in an Egyptian slammer, but flash forward to the end of the story -- there, Joseph is able to tell his brothers that while they intended their action for evil, "God intended it for good" (50:20).
This is not defensive pessimism, but divine providence. We can -- and should -- prepare for rough and wretched times, but at the same time we are challenged to be partners with providence, partners in the work that God is doing to guard us to care for us and to give us divine direction.
Sometimes this means acting in a profoundly countercultural way and risking some discomfort means:
About 10 days later, as 50,000 people came to mass and to listen to a tape of his last sermon, they heard that his body had been found in the Vistula River -- badly mutilated by torture. The secret police braced for a massive uprising by the people. But on the day of Fr. Jerzy's funeral, a huge crowd walked past their headquarters with a banner, and the people shouted what it said: "We forgive."
Can you believe it? "We forgive." What a sign of power, and providence, and victory of good over evil. Fr. Jerzy taught them well. The people of Poland were partners with providence, trusting that God was working his purposes out, even along some rough and rocky roads. In the face of persecution and murder by a ruthless secret police force, they believed in the guardianship of God and trusted in his divine care and direction.
Why did they decide to forgive instead of retaliate? Because of their faith. I was God that was at work in Fr. Jerzy's life, defending the truth and overcoming evil with good. They forgave because they wanted to be linked with the greatest power in the universe --- Jesus! For those who partner with providence, defensive pessimism is never the end of the story. God is playing offense, not defense. Creating light, not darkness. Pushing hope, not despair.
There's really only one stance we can take: offensive optimism.