Positive Parenting
Harvey A. Leve, on his daughter, Ariel Leve, her pessimism and her book, The Cassandra Chronicles.
Ariel Leve
Posted: 14:25:00 01/09/09
The Cassandra Chronicles
I am a devout optimist, believing that every day is a gift to be savoured to the fullest. My daughter, Ariel, on the other hand, is the self-appointed ambassadress of pessimism who sees doom around every corner and has never seen a dark cloud she does not love. When she is not worrying about something or other, she wonders why. In her dark and delightful book. she asks, ‘Where did my father go wrong?’
Well, I've been thinking about an answer to that for some time - decades, actually - and I haven't come up with a convincing response - not convincing to her, at any rate. I suppose one answer might be, 'Where has my daughter gone wrong?' but that's an equally irrelevant query. I believe it finally comes down to the 'half-full-half-empty' paradigm. I do not believe anyone has a monopoly on right or wrong, or on optimism or pessimism - it finally comes down to the 'half-full-half-empty' paradigm, and so much of your macro- or micro-view depends on where you are coming from, and where you are going - and what you think may be waiting for you around that corner.
But I digress. Among the blurbs on the dust jacket of The Cassandra Chronicles I am quoted as asking 'Why would anyone buy this book?' Buy it, and find out. You will love it.
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