Moment-to-Moment Optimism

By Dr. Russ

Monday is Dr. Russ Busster Day.  It is the day I offer up TIPS to help BUSST-UP any pessimism you might face this week.  Everyday over the last week, the nightly news broadcasts have not let us forget that the five year anniversary one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States.  The media have also aired many resurrection and rebuilding stories honed from the optimism of “The Spirit of New Orleans.”

While the hurricane Katrina traveled slightly east of New Orleans on August 29, 2005 it was the storm surge and the subsequent breakdown of the levees and dykes that caused most of the damage.  Five years later, the rebuilding process goes on and the hope of rebirth and new beginnings is now replaced with the optimism of making these dreams come true.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by Dave Eggers, author of the national bestseller Zeitoun.  Zeitoun is the Katrina survival story of a Syrian man and his family who were then and continue to be residents of New Orleans.

While Zeitoun sent his wife and family out of state to the safety of relatives, he stayed behind to try to save the family home and business. While he was at it, he managed to rescue quite a few people and dogs that otherwise would have perished.

Zeitoun’s survival story, however, was not just about canoeing through the flooded streets doing good deeds. It is also about surviving the fear and pessimism that gripped the city and national news with ever more sensational stories: how the City of New Orleans had fallen into social chaos and was now at the mercy of rampant lawlessness - thieves, rapists, and murderers.

According to Eggers, the rumor, innuendo and vastly overblown negative stories led the authorities to believe that the New Orleans Convention Center contained over four hundred dead bodies.  At the time for evacuation of the Convention Center, 400 body bags were brought to the entrance.  Instead authorities found six corpses and one man who had shot himself in the foot with his own gun.

At the height of this mayhem mindset, Zeitoun and three of his friends were arrested in a house he owned and then taken to makeshift prisons; never receiving any normal due process rights.  Turns out, Zeitoun was a “skilled optimist” and with the help of his very assertive and driven wife, and a missionary who listened, Zeitoun was released after surviving three weeks in this Kafka-esque nightmare.

Dr. Russ Bussters from Eggers' Story of Zeitoun

1. There are two kinds of fear: REAL and MADE-UP.  Made-up fear is much worse; lets the imagination run rampant with pessimism, and leads to greater anxiety and beliefs about hopelessness and helplessness.
2. Real fear is almost always directly proportional to the inherent danger and usually leads us to take appropriate and rational action to overcome the impending peril.  On his first day canoeing the streets of his New Orleans neighborhood, Zeitoun heard a woman crying for help.   Upon further exploration, he found her in the second story of her home, head just above water up against the ceiling.  At 80 years old and weighing 200 pounds, he knew he couldn’t save her in his canoe.  After a brief search he found two men in a fishing boat willing to help. 
3. Made-up fear is almost always out of proportion to the reality of the danger; usually resulting in catastrophic thinking and an overestimation of alarm by two or ten times more than the reality.  Zeitoun, stranded in New Orleans without electricity or access to radio to TV news, had no idea how vastly exaggerated the fears of social breakdown had become.  All he could see was people trying to survive and help others.
4. After Zeitoun had saved the woman above along with five others that first day of canoeing, he felt empowered, that his life had some real purpose.  He stayed in the city to continue to help.  Zeitoun’s experience teaches us once again that optimism is enhanced in any given moment when we find a moment or two in a day to help another.
5. If we take time to listen, we learn.  A major theme of Dave Eggers lecture last evening was about how important it was for him to just listen to Zeitoun, Kathy his wife, and other players that had a role in the unfolding Katrina events as they told their story, their way without a lot of questioning, direction and redirection.

{Michigan State University and East Lansing, Michigan are featuring Dave Eggers, Zeitoun, in its “One Book, One Community” annual program that encourages, “the city-university community to come together and discuss” the book in a variety of settings over the course of the next month.  For more about the scheduled events click on: Zeitoun.}



By Dr. Russ

Monday is Dr. Russ Busster Day.  It is the day I write about OPTIMISTIC TIPS to "BUSST-UP" any pessimism standing in your way at the beginning of the week. Today I draw on the New Orleans Saints victory in Super Bowl XLIV for optimistic inspiration and wisdom.  For an overview and introduction to “Super Bowl Optimism” check out my mini-blog at Life in Lansing.

TEN SUPER BUSSTERS

1. Vince Lombardi Trophy Busster – “I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.” ~ Vince Lombardi

2. “Ain’ts” Busster – Those who have failed, failed again and learn to fail better learn not to take teasing and ridicule personally.  Instead, they learn to take it as feedback that there is much to be done and accomplished.  Ridicule is born of strong emotion, indicating somebody cares and is emotionally invested in desire for improvement.

3. Katrina Busster – The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. teaches that, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”  Call the Saints the “Hurricane Comeback Kids.”  A “Skilled Optimist” has learned that opportunity for the “greatest of gains” only occurs when life seems to be at its “darkest hour.” Those who see and seek such opportunity in such moments draw on previously untapped motivational reserves, acquire new skills, persist longer than ever before, and able to keep a sharp focus on attaining the previously thought to be impossible goals.

4. Brees Busster – “We just believed in ourselves and we knew that we had an entire city and maybe an entire country behind us.” (Quarterback Drew Brees quoted by Barry Wilner, Associated Press).  In addition to inspiring great individual dedication, a disaster like Katrina often inspires new collaborative efforts and belief that everyone was out to help New Orleans survive and thrive.

5. Two Point Conversion Busster – Coach Sean Payton took the risk of calling for a two point conversion after Jeremy Shockey’s touchdown so the Saints would be up by seven points requiring a the Colts to score a touchdown and extra point just to tie. At first Lance Moore’s 2 point conversion catch was ruled incomplete, but Payton “challenged” calling for a video replay review.  Upon review, the incomplete pass call was overturned and two points awarded.  The “skilled optimist” knows when to take on the challenge and what is a reasonable risk.

6. Onside Kick Busster – At the beginning of the second half Saints Coach Payton became a role model for an “Optimistic Risk Taker” when he called for an onside kick to start the second half.  He told the team, “You’ve got to make me look good on this . . . that really becomes like a turnover.”  The “risk” worked and New Orleans not Indianapolis” began on the “offensive” side of the ball.  A “skilled optimist” is not afraid of “risk” and with practice over time becomes quite good at “risk taking.”

7. Sean Payton Busster – This “never-before-a-head-coach” coach provides inspiration that the impossible is doable; a 3 and 13 team can become an NFL Division champion the next year - three years after that a “Super Bowl Champion.” More importantly he has inspired an “optimistic” culture within the organization, a culture focused on hard work, responsibility and accountability.  He rebuilt the roster with coaches and players who shared those values. Only eight players remain from the 2005 “Ain’ts.”

8. Paper Bag Busster – Resilience to the ridicule of derogatory name calling is one thing, but resilience to being actively ignored and treated as if “does not exist” takes incredible stamina.  In the 1990’s “disgusted with losing” fans could have shown their complete disdain for the team by not “showing up.”  No, that would have been too easy on everyone.  Instead they showed their displeasure with the symbolic act of wearing a paper bag over their head at the game.   I’m sure such truth hurt, but it likely forced the Saint’s owners out of complacency and toward an ultimate “fix.”

9. Superdome Busster – The Superdome stands as a monument to the “optimism” of the architectural do-over.  Its near destruction by Katrina resulted in re-building an even better venue for sports; now a larger than life symbol of the “never say die spirit” proving that self-reinvention and rebirth are not only possible but preferable to the status quo.

10. “Who Dat” Busster – Making and poking fun at yourself is one of the higher forms of “skilled optimism.”  – “Who dat, who dat, who dat say gonna beat them saints,” became the Saints fans rally cry as they made fun of their own Creole language heritage.  When we can poke fun at ourselves we show we are capable of the highest form of self-worth.