I have heard it said more than once that “we should hope for the best and prepare for the worst”. I have a different take on that theory.
In life we have a tendency to see the world in the context of our mindset. Ask any mother about when she was pregnant and how the world at that time seemed to be all about babies. Think about every “sweet” person that we know. They all have “dear dear friends” or other “sweet” friends. Or think about the person in a bad mood who thinks that the world is full of “a**holes”. A thief sees a world of people who may want to steal from him/her. We see the world in the context of our mindset.
So lets go back to “preparing for the worst” and “hoping for the best”. In my opinion, the error is that we “believe” in evil and we “hope” for good. We have faith in the power of evil and we “hooooope” that goodness has influence. In my opinion goodness has as much power or more than evil. Evil flourishes because of the fact that even though we hate, it we honor it. Goodness is a dream that we HOPE comes true while evil is something to prepare for NOW.
So what do we do? I think instead of preparing for the worst, we strive to be our best. We should strive to have character, to be prepared, to honor each other. If we are at our best then we ARE prepared for the worst without having to see the world in its worst context first.
A police officer or a person in charge of homeland security has to prepare for the worst. He or she does not have the opportunity to assume that people will behave as they should. But we are not beings that have to constantly be on guard or assume that someone is planning on robbing us or taking advantage of us. Let’s be at our best, see the world in its best light, and know that IF we are at our best, when the worst happens, we will be ready.
In summation, I think that if we are at our best, we WILL be ready for the worst while being able to enjoy the best of what life has to offer. Prepare for the best as much as you prepare for the worst and you are at your best. Expect the best from people and often they live up to your expectations. Expect the worst and often that is what we get. But remember, it starts with us.