Finally--the impromptu poll results... revealed!

[email composed 22 February 2003]

After I sent out a poll to a sampling of my friends asking for their opinions regarding whether I was an optimist or a pessimist, I figured some of you may have been curious about the results. As to not skew the results one way or the other, I offer the actual responses (edited down to the specific answer). They run the gamut. This was not a surprise to me.

The "good":
- Without a doubt, an incurable optimist, with a sunny disposition and a deep spirituality
- optimist when it really comes down to it
- Pessimistly Optimistic
- a sarcastic optimist
- optimist disguised as a pessimist
- optimist
- pessimistically an optimist

The "not so good":
- pessimist
- pessimist with optimistic tendencies
- pessimist
- outwardly a pessimist, but I sense a bit of optimist deep down that tries to escape occasionally
- Pessimist
- Pessimist

The "neither/both":
- pessimist--but not really; I actually don't think you are either
- Neither
- both optimistic and pessimistic
- show[s] the tendencies of both [this one came with a long explanation]
- at times both, which I guess makes him a realist
- realist...if I had to pick either or I would go for optimist

And the best ones:
- As long as your happy with who you are, who cares what other people think?
- hmmmm...who cares?

Everyone is free to reach his or her conclusion from this. I certainly won't offer an argument one way or the other. All I can say is: I cannot help but interpret this as an indication that I am not one who is easily pigeon-holed into convenient categories. That pleases me greatly. Whether or not it should is another story.

Thanks to those of you who participated in the poll, and thanks for your continued tolerance of my obfuscating existence.