Mere Cheer
Thomas C. Reeves on the Unbearable Gravity of Being a Curmudgeon
Throughout my rather long life I have never been attracted to cheery people. Especially those who read the evening news, sell cars or insurance, and work as college administrators or preachers. I have usually dismissed the cheerfulness of such people as either mindless or insincere.
Often, of course, it is both. The inevitably perky, young, and physically attractive woman who smiles through a televised account of world horror called “the news,” evokes growls from this professor. The sight of Pat Robertson’s smile can send me out of a room sputtering fulminations. The works of Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale have always struck me as the worst sort of hypocrisy, sweet talk designed for people making business contacts at Kiwanis meetings.
No Maroon
I wanted to be the exact opposite, someone who was “realistic,” “honest,” and “truthful.” Knowing that the globe is coming apart at the seams (it always is), I thought it appropriate to be serious to the point of being grave. (Some of us are naturally better than others at this. The degree of my gravity depended in part on which political party was currently in power. It was wise to avoid me during the Carter and Clinton years.) Add to that somber mindset a dollop of sarcasm, a touch of irony, and a putdown or two, and there before your very eyes is a knowledgeable and sophisticated person.
I went a short step further, becoming something of a curmudgeon, one of a small legion about whom Jon Winokur has written admiringly, “Their weapons are irony, satire, sarcasm, ridicule. Their targets are pretense, pomposity, conformity, incompetence.” To be otherwise, I thought, was to be a Stepford Wife, an innocent, a Pollyanna, or (to quote Bugs Bunny) a maroon.
I’m now convinced that this scorn of cheerfulness and of the deliberate effort to be positive, an attitude not uncommon among intellectuals, is wholly wrong and destructive. I have been blind for decades to a simple truth: There is no inherent virtue in being glum, hypercritical, and cynical.
In fact, the “realistic” attitude toward life reveals little or nothing about knowledge, wisdom, or sophistication. Indeed, it is pompous, self-serving, and destructive. It assumes the personal possession of a preponderance of truth, highly doubtful in itself, but doubly dangerous because it elevates the self.
Just as poisonous is the fact that this negative cast of mind discourages rather than helps others get through life in a healthy, happy, and productive way. Of course, it clashes strongly with the Christian faith, a religion of love and hope.
Another simple truth: Cheerfulness, however forced, can generate both of these virtues. The New Testament is full of exhortations urging the faithful to rejoice, for the Lord has paid the price for our sins, the values of the world have been overcome, and the blessings described in the Sermon on the Mount are forthcoming and will last forever. I acknowledged this basic teaching intellectually, but it never seemed to seep down into the heart, where the decisions of life are usually made.
Always Cheerful
Thomas C. Reeves is a retired history professor who lives with his wife Kathleen in the Wisconsin countryside. Among his numerous books are biographies of John F. Kennedy and Fulton J. Sheen. His latest book is Distinguished Service: The Life and Times of Wisconsin Governor Walter J. Kohler, Jr. (Marquette University Press).
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
27.5—Sept/Oct 2014
The Culture of Death's Campaign Against the Catholic Church by Brantly Millegan
21.10—December 2008
Early Christian Teaching on the Incarnation & Redemption by Patrick Henry Reardon
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
