Co-create reality

"Now however fixed these elements of reality may be, we still have a certain freedom in our dealing with them. Take our sensations. THAT they are is undoubtedly beyond our control; but WHICH we attend to, note, and make emphatic in our conclusions depends on our own interests; and, according as we lay the emphasis here or there, quite different formulations of truth result. We read the same facts differently. 'Waterloo', with the same fixed details, spells a 'victory' for en englishman; for a frenchman it spells a 'defeat.' So, for an optimist philosopher the universe spells victory, for a pessimist, defeat. What we say about reality thus depends on the perspective into which we throw it."  -- William James

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."  -- Winston Churchill

(Harvard University 07 Positive Psychology 1504)