When Angelina Jolie announced she had a double mastectomy, prophylactically, to prevent breast cancer, she became a role model for action-oriented optimism. Some 232,000 women in the USA receive a breast cancer diagnosis each year, and 40,000 die from the disease. Genetic testing also indicates that Angelina is at risk of ovarian cancer as well. Breast cancer has many survivors, but ovarian cancer does not. Ovarian cancer is much more deadly. 

In 1962, at the age of 41, my mother died of ovarian cancer. She had been treated 10 years prior for breast cancer with a single mastectomy. My mother’s mother died at the age of 39 of ovarian cancer. Twelve out of thirteen of my maternal grandparent’s siblings died of some kind of cancer at relatively young ages. We have learned since the advent of genetic testing that either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes are present in nearly every female in the lineage from my mother’s mother.

In 1968, my aunt, my mother’s younger sister underwent prophylactic surgery that removed both breasts and she had a complete hysterectomy removing the ovaries and uterus, all at the same time.  She was in her forties, approaching menopause, and had born three children. My Aunt lived to be 80 years old. She got to enjoy being with and seeing all her six grandchildren grow into their twenties.

When my mother passed in 1962, everyone was forecasting a cure for cancer within forty years. Well, it has been fifty years, and we still do not have the cure. In 1968, when my aunt underwent the surgery it was truly groundbreaking, but some 45 years later, Jolie is being hailed as a ground-breaker for women’s breast health.

As you know, the Dr. Russ brand of optimism is not about wishful thinking and pie in the sky outcomes, but is about taking constructive action to improve your life situation and attitude. Angelina Jolie’s actions speak louder than any words she has spoken. I have seen the positive results of this kind of action-oriented optimism had for my aunt, up close and personal. It is not easy to have the parts of your body that most define physical femininity removed. Like a good optimist these women assessed their worst-case scenario and its likelihood of occurrence. They then made a decision to save themselves for their families. These are the kinds of actions that define the Dr. Russ Buss brand of optimism.

Let me know what you think.

After the Newtown massacre of 6 and 7 year old children, I observed people coming together in mourning at memorial services held in churches all over the country.  It is not unusual for tragedy to lead us to seek comfort in God; to look for the Lord’s guidance and yes protection.   To me that would mean people now would seek out God more and guns less.  Protection of the soul and the spirit within is not had with a gun, but only with God.  So what has happened?

According the New York Times, Americans are flocking to gun stores across the country in record numbers to purchase not just guns, but weapons designed to kill 10 to 100 people in under a minute.   Thirty round, high capacity, rifle magazines are now selling for $60 up from $12 a few weeks ago.

These Americans who have made this choice to arm themselves with what I consider to be “weapon s of mass destruction” have forsaken the protection of God for the false belief that they can play God and protect themselves.  On the way to the gun store, they have forgotten ten truths about God.

Ten Truths Americans Forgot about God on the Way to the Gun Store

1.     Martin Luther King, Jr. fought the final major battle for the equality of blacks in America on a platform of non-violence, peace, love and reconciliation.  The guns that were used, were used by those who sought to destroy the African American, but only fueled the determination of their spirit of endurance.

2.     The watch-phrase of the 60’s was “We Shall Overcome.”  And, overcome they did without firing a shot despite being fired upon over and over.

3.      It took four centuries, but the Roman Empire despite putting thousands upon thousands of Christians to horrible deaths in the Coliseums finally became a Christian Empire in 381 AD. 

4.     Evil works through the creation of irrational fear that there is nothing we can do to keep ourselves safe except to take up evil and try and fight evil with evil. 

5.     Evil is stymied when we come close to God, place him in our hearts and talk to Him moment-to-moment, everyday.

6.     Jesus taught that life is not about the flesh and worldly things, but about the spirit and life everlasting.  On a given day, in some particular circumstance, someone may protect their flesh with a gun, but protection of the spirit can only be sought through prayer and peaceful coexistence with our fellow human beings.

7.     The reason the Founding Father’s were successful in overthrowing British rule in the American Revolution had little to do with the right to bear arms and everything to do with an unyielding spirit and belief that, “All people were created equal and had the right life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  How else could that “rag tag” group of colonists under the command of General Washington have prevailed except for a belief in the ideal for which they were fighting.  They were not fighting to protect their own flesh.  They put their flesh at risk to protect some projected future, which was an IDEA!!!!!

8.     In their rush to the gun store, they have forgotten that the logical extension of their thinking is an SUV that transforms into a tank for protection of the homeowner, or the pocket size tactical nuclear weapon. 

9.     We have a choice to choose God and not guns.  When we choose guns we choose to play God.  I do not recall any Bible story where it turned out well for one or more humans to play God.

10. God created the world and everything in it including humans so that we could experience the joy of living with God and walking with Jesus through worship and honoring Him.  Life is not about us!  Life is about God!  God will not forsake us.  Those Newtown families who choose to seek out God and come closer to Him will be assured that their lost loved ones are being cared for by God, and they will find a deeper meaning and joy in their renewed spirit that will come from this death than ever imagined. 

Meet Tom Jenkins, of Centennial, CO: an 85 year old mountain climber who reminds us to be thankful for each day of life, whether we can climb mountains or not! 

Originally aired by Denver's 9News, check out Tom's story below, and see if his message doesn't sound familiar. 

In this season of Thanksgiving, each and everyone of us can find something to be thankful for. Will you go a step further and not only be thankful for your life and the people and opportunities in it, but also look for the ways you can continue to make positive changes for yourself and others? 

If we wake up in the morning, we have the privilege of choosing the way we will respond to the day that unfolds before us.  What will your choice be?

By Dr. Russ,

On Sunday, October 14, 2012, the community around Duke University Chapel came together to celebrate the “blessing of the animals.”  This event is in commemoration of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, which always occurs on October 4 of each year and is celebrated at Duke on the first Sunday after the 4^th.  Originally scheduled for October 7, 2012 in front on the majestic Duke Chapel, it was postponed due to rain.  As someone aptly said, there is nothing worse than the smell of wet dog.

Sunday, October 12 was a gorgeous 70 degree, blue sky day; a perfect venue for celebrating the Patron Saint of animals and the environment who lived during the 12 century.  The celebration honors all animals on earth, and is meant to remind us that God entrusted humankind to be good stewards of the animals he placed in our care.  The event was attended mostly by dogs and their owners, but there were cats, guinea pigs, and even an iguana sprinkled throughout the crowd of several hundred.

Sofie, my standard poodle, and I attended the event.  I had never been to one of these ceremonies before, and came away quite impressed.  We had music from a local children’s choir, liturgy, prayer, and a short sermon all in honor of God’s gift of animals to our world.  Afterwards, the numerous robed clergy on hand came around and gave an individual prayer-of-blessing for each animal.  This individual ritual is clearly depicted in the picture above.

Animals of all kinds and species bring us much joy and enrichment, hence the popularity of zoos, the Discovery and Animal channels.  Our pets bring us the comfort of unconditional love.  All we have to do to fulfill God’s promise of the gift of animals to the earth, to us, is to treat them with the respect, dignity, care that God did when He spoke them into existence.  

Optimism is derived from two aspects of animals: 1) the unconditional love they give to us, and 2) the joy and positive spirit we get from taking good care of them.  We experience both sources of optimism within the close personal relationship we develop with our pets and farm animals.  We derive the same level of optimism from animals in the wild and the sea when we hold these creatures in the awe of God’s wonderful creativity and treat them with dignity and respect by honoring their environments, their freedom, and rightful place to live on the earth. 

This essay is the first entry into a series of articles on the subject of optimism and virtue.  First, I address the question: What is the relationship between optimism and virtue? 

Virtue is defined as striving to live the good life not for the sake of some extrinsic reward or avoidance of punishment, but instead for the intrinsic value of goodness for goodness sake.  We can never achieve a state of perfect virtue, because God is the only perfect being and since God is limitless, so too is virtue.   Thus, the goal is not to become virtuous, but to learn to engage in a continuous process of self-improvement and becoming.

Optimism is defined as a view or perspective that no matter what circumstances of life we encounter, we believe we can find a way to make progress by building on positive events and solve the problems inherent in negative ones.  Like virtue, optimism is a continuous striving to improve and make our lives better. 

The “good life” of living virtuously could be defined based our own personally derived sense of what is “right living,” or we could look to a spiritual source for the characteristics of the “good life.”  In these essays, I use the Bible and the life of Moses as depicted by 4^th century scholar Gregory of Nyssa, as the standard for virtuousness.

I will argue that in order to live a life of optimism in each and every moment, i.e., viewing each and every moment of life as an opportunity for growth and self-improvement, we must be pursing goals of learning to live virtuously as set forth in the Bible, particularly, the life of Moses as characterized by Gregory of Nyssa.

First Lesson of Optimism and Virtuous Living

Development of virtue can only occur in an environment of change.  Gregory of Nyssa argues the Pharaoh’s decree to kill all first-born males sets the stage for change as a constant in Moses life and demonstrates how his response to change created opportunity after opportunity to learn more virtue.

Application of Lesson to Politics and Change

At the close of the Republican National Convention and on the eve of the Democratic National Convention we are being bombarded with calls for the need for change.  Romney argues that his plan will bring prosperity and Obama asks for four more years to complete the changes he has begun.  Everyday, no matter where I go, I come upon a homeless and down and destitute person looking for some help with their dire economic circumstances. 

How are we to maintain a perspective of optimism in light of all of this change?  The first step is to focus on the goal of virtue and not leading the “good life.”  The “good life” is one of wealth and accumulation of material stuff.  Virtue is pursuing some good for its own sake. 

Doing good for its own sake requires us to stop looking at our own welfare and start working toward improving the welfare of others.  Trying to discern what is or might be beneficial to the welfare of others in the context of today’s political climate and economic circumstances is truly a challenge, but a much more worthwhile endeavor for enhancing optimism than trying to figure out how to “feather our own nest.”  The key is in the trying and striving toward better and better service toward others.

In conclusion, do not be disheartened by the constant change and challenge of day-to-day living in our modern American society because it gives us the continuous opportunity to improve in our ability to maintain an optimistic perspective and simultaneously pursue a virtuous lifestyle.

As we live through the daily changes of the next two months leading up to election day, we have two ways to pursue optimism and virtue and rise above the fray of negativity: 1) We can simply ignore all the rhetoric and go out and do something to help someone in difficulty of less fortunate.  I guarantee that when you make that effort, you will feel both positive and good about yourself, in a way that lasts. 2) You can demand from whichever candidate you support that whether they are going to give tax brakes to the rich or middle class, they find a way to make sure every monetarily enriched individual gives back the money, 2 to 10 fold, in kind or service, for the betterment of society and the less fortunate.

[Note: The key reference for defining and illustrating virtuous living is: Gregory of Nyssa, The life of Moses (Harper Spiritual Classics; trans. A.J. Malherbe and E. Ferguson; San Francisco: Harper, 2006].

What color(s) comes to mind when you think of the Olympics?   The three most obvious colors are GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE.   If you’re from the USA, you might answer RED, WHITE, and BLUE; or from Germany BLACK, RED and GOLD; or from any nation, the national colors of your country.  

My answer is none of the above.  I argue that the proper color of Olympic Optimism is RED!

Why do I nominate RED as the official color of the Olympic Optimism?  Because Olympic Optimism comes directly from BLOOD, SWEAT and TEARS.  I know NBC and all the news media focus on the color GOLD.   As I have blogged before, less than 3% of those competing will win a Gold Medal, and less than 9% a medal of any color. 

Every athlete in the Olympics past and present has their personal story of “blood, sweat, and tears;” a story of overcoming setbacks of pain and injury, come from behind “underdog” victories, and holding back tears while managing the disappointment of defeat.

Just a few days ago, Jordyn Wieber, a U.S.A. favorite for an individual medal in the Women’s All Around Gymnastics competition, was locked out of competing in the final of the event because two of her teammates unexpectedly outscored her; only two athletes from a country can compete in the final, a rule the famed coach Bela Karolyi loudly denounced.   

Seimone Augustus a superstar on the Gold medal favored, USA Olympic Women’s Basketball team has recovered from anterior cruciate ligament surgery and the removal of 3 fibroid tumors followed by a hysterectomy in the last several years.  One tumor was the size of a bowling ball. 

In the 4^th century, Gregory of Nyssa wrote about virtue and perfection.  He taught that virtue could only be sought for its own sake.  Seeking to be virtuous for God’s approval or the approval of others or for obtaining glory or riches on earth only undermines and negates virtue.  According to Saint Gregory, perfection cannot be achieved by any human, but living a life in the pursuit of ever improving perfection just for the sake of constant improvement and getting better and better in skill or character is the way of virtue modeled by Moses. "With no stopping place in the spiritual quest for perfection, our journey has no limit. But even though perfection is unattainable and impossible, Gregory encourages us that "by attaining even a part we gain a great deal." (The Journey with Jesus: Book Notes, Reviews by Dan Clendenin).

Sure these athletes would all love to win a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal.  But, it is only a realistic goal for, at best, 25% of the competitors who know only 10% will actually win one.   Most would have rated Jordyn Weiber’s chances of winning an individual gold at 95%, not just 75%.  A clear favorite to win an individual gold in the women’s all around, she faced the obstacles of an Olympic rule and chances for her own potential missteps in any given performance moment.  Circumstances not under her control.

As I write this blog, I learn that the USA Women’s Olympic Team has won a team Gold Medal to which Jordyn made a major contribution.  I ask: Is the color of an Individual Gold Medal any different than the color of Team Gold?

I argue that there is only way that the athletes who make it to this level of competition have survived, overcome and continued the pursuit of excellence, athletic virtue, if you will.  They play on because they enjoy and love the sport for its own sake. 

They endure and strive to perform better and better not to win a medal or best another, but because they have internalized the virtue of the value of doing their individual best, in any given moment, for its own sake; for the intrinsic reward of self-improvement and having tried again and again to get better and better because that is the ultimate good and value of sport competition.

In this way, pursuing a sport for the sake of the love of the sport and constant self-improvement becomes life and character transforming.  The News Media with there emphasis on outcome and winning confuse and distract us from the value of the Olympic Games and their true colors – BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS.  Oh, and by the way, the true taste of the Games is SALTY not SWEET!

Optimism for the victims of Sandusky and the cover up by Penn Sate and Paterno can only come from changes in the institutional culture that allowed the abuse to go on for more than a decade; not only the institutional culture of Penn State but also every other institution of higher education in the country. 

Until every janitor, graduate assistant, or other vulnerable employee of these institutions can feel supported instead of threatened for reporting an instance of observed or suspected child abuse, the culture will not have changed.

In my opinion, the NCAA action brings hope of the possibility of real institutional culture change on this issue.  While the NCAA is of these institutions it is also above them and thus has the leverage to turn hope for the victims and end of abuse into the reality of optimism that this heinous act can be curtailed and future victims protected.

In a prior blog post, I wrote about a case of child abuse in an institution of higher learning that occurred some 25 years ago and about which I had direct knowledge.  In that case the local police and the administrators directly in charge of the perpetrator were able to have that individual removed from his job, but not before the university top echelon claimed the individual was not their employee, referring to the issue as an assault; no mention of sexual abuse of a minor.  The institutional cover up was swift and protective of image, all at once.

In the end, the public never knew what happened, the victim was cognitively impaired and thus became an unreliable witness.  The police had a trail of evidence implicating the perpetrator in child abuse cases all across the country.  While the perpetrator lost his job, he was never convicted, received a years back pay upon threat of law suit, and went on unencumbered to possibly find other employment around unsuspecting children whom he could continue to abuse. 

Meanwhile, the ultimate aftermath and “slap in the face” came in the form of a reprimand of the administrators who first became aware of the incident, made proper report to authorities and removed the individual from his job.  The reprimand came from the university that had claimed a year earlier he was not even an employee. 

In its cover-up, just like Penn State, the institution showed no regard for the victim or other future victims.  When the institution acted to protect its own reputation it protected the reputation of the perpetrator allowing for unbridled abuse to continue.

I raise up this past case to show that these incidents are not unique to Penn State or the Catholic church.  Every institution of higher education is vulnerable and until they act to change their culture around this issue, there will be no hope for the victims and the lifelong suffering they experience.

This NCAA action should be a wake up call for every institution of higher education in the country to create and write explicit policy regarding child abuse, its reporting and follow-up.  Just as we did with “sexual harassment” training for the workplace in the 1980’s, we need to have every employee go through “child sexual abuse” awareness and training in these institutions. 

Only then will the culture change and hope can turn into the optimism that change is possible and can happen.

I congratulate Penn State for immediately agreeing to and signing off on these NCAA sanctions instead of engaging in some pessimistic and protracted legal battle.  In this decision, Penn State has acted responsibly to take a leadership role in self-correction and change.  Perhaps in four years they can become a national leader for the prevention of child sexual abuse on campuses of higher education.

On July 4, 1897, Adolph S. Ochs, the new owner and publisher of "The Times" published a reproduction of the Declaration of Independence calling it the "original charter of the nation," (NY Times, July 3, 2012, David W. Dunlap).

On July 4, 1776 when this document was formally adopted by the Continental Congress, it was the most OPTIMISTIC formulation of the role of government and the rights of its citizens every published.  The Declaration remains so today.  I have culled what I consider to be the eight most optimistic precepts from the Declaration and presented them below.

Thomas Jefferson is credited as the primary author of the Declaration.  The ideas codified here were new and bold and staked out “powers of the people” never before given by a government in the history of humankind.  Jefferson clearly acknowledges how hard it is to rise out of hopelessness and the despair of pessimism in precept 8 above.  I have often talked about how much more difficult it is to embrace optimism than to remain in the non-risk-taking-state of pessimism.

I congratulate the NY Times for reproducing a facsimile of the Declaration every year since 1922.  This year the National Archives of Records and Administration  provided The Times with a much higher-resolution facsimile for its annual publication.

The picture below taken from the perspective of a boat on the water conveys the optimism of the Declaration in a single burst of green light that symbolizes the GO of enlightened revolution inspired by this incredibly optimistic document.

I spent most of the last week in Savannah, Georgia near the water.  With the full moon over the fourth of July, the tides in and around the Savannah area were nearly ten feet higher at high than low tide.  Take a look at the room in which you are sitting and imagine that water rose higher than that 8 foot ceiling and back to floor level twice every 24 hours.  That is a huge ebb and flow of water.

The effects of this ebb and flow are quite dramatic.  At low tide, boats literally sit on a mud bog and one must wait for higher tide to sail it.  When the tide goes out it creates a sizable current of water flowing as fast as 3 miles per hour.  If you want to know how fast that is, try swimming against the tide.  Or, simply fill the kitchen sink with water and then pull the plug.  The water rushes down the drain with significant force like the low tide current.

About mid-week, news came out announcing the discovery if the Higgs-boson particle, a theoretical base component of the universe that makes matter possible.  Two teams of 3000 physicists each had worked at the CERN atom-splitting laboratory in Switzerland to find this elusive element.  I am sure that some day, the discovery of Higgs boson will have dramatic theoretical and practical applications throughout science and technology.  Millions of dollars were spent on this discovery.  Why? Because the more we know about the universe, the more we can control it.

In contrast, we do not seem to have the same interest in understanding and controlling the ebb and flow of tides.  Tides seem to be part of “mother nature” and so we have learned to adapt to them as opposed to trying to control them like we will eventually do with particle physics. 

Working with and around 8 to 10 foot tides requires a lot of effort and planning from dredging out deeper channels for ships, building floating docks and accounting for the speed of currents in navigation plans.

I began to think about the tides as a metaphor for “Moment-to-Moment Optimism.”  We cannot control the circumstances we encounter every day, but we can control how we respond to those circumstances.  Similarly, we can’t control the ebb and flow of tides, their height nor timing.  We can only control how we adapt and work around and with the tides.  We can plan to go out in the boat at certain times, we can build floating docks, and we can learn to accept that a mud bottom is there and our boat will be out of commission for a few hours.

Life is so much easier when we choose to control what we can and stop trying to control what we can’t.

What do you think?

Optimism Above

Optimism in Motion

White Tail Bursts of Optimism