Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive

The above title is a Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer song. Johnny recorded it with the Pied Pipers and released it in 1944. If you are familiar with the song maybe you know it through the Bing Crosby and Andrews Sisters version that was recorded and released a few months later. Unless you like Jazz vocals, pop 40's music, you may not know this song at all. However, this story is not about the song but rather more the message of the song.

My mom, who is 98 and still with us as of this writing, is a positive person. My mom is an encourager (is that a word?). She is always finding ways to compliment those she comes across. While she tries to like everyone, she struggles with people who are negative and she doesn't like hearing gossip. Like her, and from her, I became someone who will frequently tell people who are helpful when waiting or assisting me, like at the store or an office of some kind, that they are doing a good job.

I was at the Home Depot the other morning picking up some stuff. I ended up in the garden area so I checked out at one of the stations there which are manned (peopled?), well this case “womaned”, with check-out staff, as opposed to using one of the self check out stations inside that I generally use. When it was my turn the young woman checking me out asked me how my day was going. This seems to be the standard greeting on these types of occasions now-a-days. I replied “I'm doing good.” Then I asked her how she was doing. She said she was doing great, had just started her shift, and was happy that she had this job. She was very upbeat. I in turn remarked what a great positive attitude she seemed to have and what, in my opinion, a difference that can make. She then said she learned to be positive from a stint she had done in the Army. I then told her that I'd done a 3 year stint of active service in the Air Force. She thanked me for my service after which I gave my standard reply that there was no need to thank me as, unlike her, it wasn't my idea as I was a victim of the draft. My stint was during the Vietnam War. We shared a couple of additional thoughts on our military experience and then my check-out was complete. I thanked her and told her I appreciated the good service and I headed off to my car.

On the drive home I thought about the check-out woman's statement about learning to be positive from her time in the Army. I then reflected back on my time in the Air Force. I did not have anything near a positive attitude when I was in. Those years were very difficult for me. I struggled to come to terms with my predicament and my feelings about who I was and what I was doing. I was against the war and more, I was really a pacifist. I was now aiding an action I believed to be wrong and I felt like a fake, a failure. My way of coping was to be mostly withdrawn and distant. When I did engage I was often sarcastic. I looked at my predicament as forced labor which luckily had a fixed time limit as long as I didn't “f-up” too badly. I tried to let the time go by without thinking too much, just going through the motions.

Upon my release, I felt like I got my life back. I was so happy to now have control over where I worked and what I did, with the option to quit/change jobs whenever I wanted, that I approached my jobs with a renewed positive attitude. Driving home I thought about how I looked at things prior to and after my time in the Air Force. While my mom's positive attitude had clearly influenced me, my attitude was in fact considerably more positive after my release from the Air Force. I realized that my positive attitude is at least partly a residue of my military service and like the woman at the Home Depot, I also came out of my military service with a more positive attitude.

It took me years to even bring up that I had served in the military, many of my later friends would be surprised when they would hear that I had been in because I never talked about it. As time has gone by I have become more comfortable with accepting that part of my life. Along with that I have realized that I learned a lot, mostly about myself, through that experience and while I never would have freely chosen that path there are a number of positive things that have come out of it for me.

Today I might sound like a cynic to some but the truth is I am really more of a dreamer. I still, beyond all the evidence to the contrary, think humans are capable of rising up and coming together in an inclusive community. If I didn't believe this I'd have to ask myself just what the heck it is I am doing here. I am not a people person but I do believe in people, I believe in our better selves.

Attitude makes such a big difference in life and it's something we can mostly control. It may take some effort but the payoff is significant. The benefit of keeping a positive attitude is hard to quantify but it clearly makes a huge difference in life including in the life of others you engage with. I believe it is one of the keys to a good life, part of a life well lived if you will.

So like Johnny Mercer sings:

You need to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive,

E-lim-mi-nate the negative,

Latch on the to the affirmative,

Don't mess with mister in-between.