Ever heard of the definition of the pessimist and optimist?
A pessimist has been described as someone who sees the glass half-empty, while an optimist sees it as half-full. Some people are realists. To them, the glass is neither full or empty. I often wonder which of these types of people are predominant in this our dear country Nigeria.
I guess if it’s on a regular day, you’ll see the mixture of the two or three, probably in the same proportion. But most times, I am amazed at the survival instinct that is displayed by most Nigerians.
Recently, I saw a sight that really impressed me and got me thinking along this line. In Nigeria right now, we are in the middle of our rainy season and that means lots of rainfalls. Places that usually were dry are now full of water.
There is this gully around a neighbourhood I passed recently. By gully, i mean a gully erosion site or spot, like a big ditch.
During the dry season, this place is just a ditch with nothing in it but sand. Now, with the rains pouring almost everyday, it has become a pool of water, with the potential of fish living inside it (I’m still trying to figure out the “how”). But I see a lot of fishing nets and traps in the water, which makes me believe that it does have potentials.
As the rains have increased, the water has become really full and hard for the ‘fishermen’ to do their fishing by going in to the water as they did before but at the same time, it’s too narrow for a proper boat. So recently as I passed along that route, I was amazed to see a small raft in it with a man in it fishing. I couldn’t help but smile, nothing was going to stop him from benefiting in this season.
While others are probably complaining about the gully being full of water, he is seeing a pond for fish; even when it got difficult to fish in the traditional way because of the fullness of the pond/gully. He came up with an alternative. Brilliant!
An Optimist, a Pessimist or a Realist. Which one are you?
