Ode to Ode

Personally I think pessimism is the only game in town, much more reality-based than any other slant on things. Pessimists are interesting to talk to (if they’ll talk) and easier to have a nuts and bolts discussion with than fuzzy-headed optimists who are so happy they keep changing the subject. Psychiatrists say that many so-called depressed people are actually just much more realistic about life than optimists as it takes a huge jolt of fantasy to keep going day to day in our modern world. But I do get tired of my own pessimism sometimes (believe it or not) and when I need a fix of the happy stuff, I read Ode. This is a magazine started in the Netherlands some years ago and now available in an American English edition. It is full of upbeat articles about where the world is going and how we can all solve the world’s problems with our innate human skills-- stories like that about compassionate capitalism in India (Tata Motors), the transformation of Rwanda due to the overwhelming majority of women left after the genocide, the Niroga Institue which teaches yoga in prisons, nursing homes and hospitals, all written in an upbeat way makes one believe that there is hope and good out there in the world somewhere. Every time I finish an Ode, I feel like cheering. Although I catch myself being grumpy about the new-age capitalism so apparent in the glossy, well-designed ads, I tell myself I would rather have those than the ads for pharma and cars and booze that clog the pages of more “worldly” magazines. True, the whole tone of the mag can seem a little too happy at times, slightly lobotomized in its lack of depth or probing, almost over-medicated on happy (there I go being pessimistic again). But if that is what it takes to save the world, OK, maybe we can afford to evolve in a direction which allows more cooperation, less competition for resources, a happyization that disables our red-in-tooth-and-claw genes and enables us to be satisfied with less, even if it includes less brooding about what we are losing.

Ode Magazine. You can read the digital edition here: http://www.odemagazine.com/.