Negative Nelly?

I have a reputation with some people I know for being a negative person.  This came up again on Monday night at the curling wind-up when a woman there I’ve known for a few years, initially through curling and then via the mentally interesting set, made a comment about some of the negative things I write on the Telegraph. She specifically referenced my March weather rant.  While she wasn’t complaining about the negativity of that column per se (she actually said that when she read that column she “got it”) in her preamble before mentioning the column she made a comment along the lines of “I know you tend to be  negative a lot” or something like that.  This is the second time this person has insinuated to me that she thinks I’m a negative person in general (I can’t remember the exact details of the first time but I got the message loud & clear).

I hear this a lot from various people.  Usually, I don’t give a crap what people think of me, but at times I am bothered by the perception that I am an overly negative person.

I obviously don’t see the world through rose coloured glasses, and I tend to be fairly critical of those who do because I think if you see the world through rose coloured glasses, you are not thinking too much and you might be putting your head in the sand a wee bit.  However, if you choose to see the world through those glasses – fine!  I just don’t like the judgment that comes from those rosy people that because I don’t wear the same glasses, then I am a negative person.

Also, a three of the people who have told me I’m a negative person, including this woman at curling, first met me and spent the first four years of my relationships with them in a severe depression.  Well, newsflash, when one is in the thick of a depressive episode, one tends to be pretty fucking negative.

In the case of the Telegraph, if readers of what I write there get the perception that I am a negative person, they are obviously not reading everything that is published there and they are just focusing on the negative stuff ( the weather, the online dating scene, my dislike of Xmas).  But man, there is an awful lot of positive stuff I write there, too, so I just don’t get it.

Same with this blog.  This blog is the tapestry of my life since I started it in the fall of 2004.  Look at what I’ve been through in those last 6.5 years: a very stressful culinary school experience, a divorce, a career change that didn’t go well, and a four-year long episode of severe depression.  So sue me for not being Mary Fucking Sunshine throughout the whole blog!

Since I’m in remission right now, I think this is reflected in the way I think in general, what I write, and how I express myself in various ways.  I have always been one to give credit where credit is due, get excited about big life events going on in the lives of people I love, I show enthusiasm about things that excite me (and a lot more excites me these days than it has in a long time), and I enjoy expressing my love and appreciation for people and experiences in my life who bring me joy.  I do this on the Telegraph, too, where appropriate (Ode to Pancake Tuesday comes to mind, as does Heavy Metal Afternoon).

So WTF?  Are people just being selective with their “evidence” of my negativity, or am I missing something here?