I don't trust optimists

 

I am the first to admit that I am a sarcastic pessimist. I don't trust people who are always trying to put a positive spin on things. 

It's not so much that I see the worst in everything. Experience just tells me that it is more realistic (and healthy) to be a bit skeptical. And overly optimistic people just annoy me.

It does make my humor a bit too biting at times. I do catch myself listening to conversations and impulsively jumping in with smart ass comments. But lately I have tried curbing that a bit. I'm sure it is an annoying compulsion too to listen to me trying to be funny all of the time.

Still I think sarcasm is at the heart of most humor that is funny (or at least I think is funny). Which is why I'd like people to reinforce my belief that I am humorous by buying my t-shirt designs. Or at least appreciating them.

To that end I wore two of my t-shirts on the ad shoot. One was the "Walken like an Egyptian" shirt and the other was my "Groovin' Old Man" riff on Da Vinci. The ad agency people seemed to think the Walken shirts was funny. But I didn't tell them it was my design at first. Later that night I share that with them and they sort of politely nodded. I then made the mistake of showing them some of the other designs on my phone. And I began sensing that glazing over look people get when they are trying to be polite but aren't really into what you are sharing. 

It wasn't quite as bad as the reaction I got to the slide show of my life I shared with my marketing staff a few months ago. But it also wasn't an overwhelming reinforcement of my desire to be thought of a funny and creative person but has never been truly appreciated. 

Fortunately I resisted the urge to share my Blog address with any of them. The pessimist in me is firmly acknowledging that that is a side of me best kept confined to random people who Google in here, shake their head in confusion and leave.