I've had a couple of things on my mind this week. First, one of my students asked me a startling question out of the blue. She said, "Sister Beatty, how do you know the difference between someone being depressed and someone being a pessimist?" To be honest, it caught me totally off guard and the best answer I could come up with on the spot was that I imagine the negativity of depression is out of character for that person, but pessimism is a way of life and a way of thinking.

On the flip side of the coin, I heard an advertisement that seemed to blatantly ignore the state of affairs our economy is in with this statement...

All of this has been swirling in my head and I've been pondering how much our perception of things affects the end results. If you think about it, you probably know people who just seem to ALWAYS get the short end of the stick, and others who have EVERYTHING - talent, looks, money, family. Doesn't it sometimes seem that those who have everything are magnets for even more success?

Then my mind went to the parable of the ten talents (Matt. 25:14-30), and sure enough

29. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have an abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath

If we could interview the servant whose one lone talent was being taken away and given to the one with ten talents, I wonder what he'd have to say?

24. Then he which had recieved the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou has not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewn
25. I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine

Do you think he may have tried before and failed, and was afraid to fail again?
Maybe he was resentful that "Mr. Five Talents" had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
Was his pessimistic viewpoint a learned trait or even "genetic?"