People constantly demand positivity from one and other, all the time, twenty-four seven. It never ends. Everyone is too negative, according to everyone else anyway. But is that really the case? Has the world around us somehow become a constant crisis of pettiness and abuse? Or is this just our perception? A kind of projection we put upon others to protect ourselves from complex anxieties. Is the world out to get us or are we afraid that it may not be? Could it be that the world is, in fact, indifferent to us and that we are the ones forcing the world to be negative because that is what we really want it to be? Is our concern with the moods of others really healthy or is it just downright nosy? Why do we have demands of others who we hardly know? It is as if we are all directors, ordering the extras in our big Hollywood film to get into their places before the big scene. We all place a spotlight on ourselves. We live in a world where we are the stars of a movie that no one but us is watching and we just happen to be our own worst critics. I mean, how dare other people not be happy during the Holiday parties we throw for them? The nerve! Just think of all the work we put into that party and then they have the nerve to have the wrong facial expression or say the wrong line during our big scene. Then there are those ungrateful kids of ours, having the audacity to complain about the perfect dinner we made. That is not how the script we wrote before cooking the dinner is supposed to turn out. A child who was playing their part right in your big film, would know damn well that they should never spit out your food. You wrote very specifically in the stage directions that they are supposed to love your cooking and thank you every time the food hits their little tongues. All this talk of it being too spicy or too bland is simply not in the screenplay. Cut! Let’s try it again from the top little ones! Then just look at your significant other, sitting there playing video games again. That’s not what adults do in your romantic comedy. Did they even read the script you wrote for them? Probably not, the ungrateful bastard. They are supposed to be writing you love sonnets or composing classical symphonies in your holy honor. How dare they not treat you like the Queen or King you really are? You spent a lot of time on the script, and, damn it, they should know better than to not memorize their lines. The point I am making here is that, the real reasons you feel people are being negative are quite dubious and downright manipulative. Your world is centered around your feelings, your thoughts, your urges, your desires. You are the one assuming others are behaving incorrectly. You are the one that has decided that others are a stick in the mud. But are they really? Or is it just that you do not share their interests? You are listening to your inner monologue and your inner monologue is full of what you would call negativity: critique, mistrust, misgivings, ungratefulness, disdain for what is different, hatred for what is not perfect, disgust for what is not polite; demand after demand after demand. But you are the only one that ever hears this inner monologue. It is torturing you. It’s all about you and your feelings. It was never anyone else. So calling a person negative is not at all a statement of fact; it is your opinion. You cannot be inside of someone else’s head. You can only view the world from your perspective. But one thing you can do is remind yourself of this. Remind yourself that, though your big movie is still important, it is not the only thing that is important. Remind yourself that the world will not always be about what you want, that you must give others some time in your spotlight as well. After all, a director can be as great as they want, but no one will come to see the show without the actors and camera crew. Now get out there and win yourself that Oscar kid. I always knew you were going to be a big star. And action!