Be Pollyanna
March 15th, 2010 |
Published in
Creating Change
by Lanell Dike
I have a new favorite book.
Written almost 100 years ago, in 1913 by Eleanor H. Porter, this book is about a little girl who helps people find something to be glad about in every situation.
Maybe you’ve heard of her. Her name is Pollyanna.
She’s had a hard life. Her mother died when she was a baby and she grew up poor, living with her dad until he died too. Then she gets shipped off to an aunt she’s never met, a woman who forbids her to speak of her beloved father and who sticks her in a small bare room next to the attic so she’ll be as isolated as possible. Oh, and she also gets hit by a car and is paralyzed.
Pretty daunting life challenges – especially for a kid. But somehow Pollyanna manages to survive with a love for life and the people around her. She transforms her situations by playing a game her dad taught her. The game is to “find something to be glad about in everything – no matter what ’twas.” Her enthusiasm is infectious and pretty soon the whole community is playing her ‘just being glad’ game.
Pollyanna is a reminder of the power of our attention. What are we focused on? “You see, when you’re hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind.”
The Pollyanna story also highlights the affect we have on one another.
As Kay Redfield Jamison writes in her memoir, Nothing Was the Same, “Moods are contagious; they spread from those afflicted to those who are not.”
Jamison talks about how hard resisting the human interplay of mood is and says, “Moods are too insinuating, too persuasive; despair begets despair; suspicion and anger give rise to paranoia and rage. Concerned disengagement is the Holy Grail at such times, but obtaining and holding on to such a state is difficult; to remain impervious to provocation flies against all odds and is scarcely reasonable to expect from human nature.” (pg. 18)
The beauty of Pollyanna is that she never denies what is happening, she merely looks to find the silver lining and no matter how small it is – focuses on that.
We’ve been taught that “being Pollyanna” is a bad thing, but why? Especially if we do affect each other so powerfully with our moods – wouldn’t we rather have a few more Pollyanna’s around? Try out the glad game this week and see what happens.
Happy Monday!