It is an amazing time to be alive on this planet. There are no shortages of naysayers and worry-warts, filling headlines with the latest scary-scary and things we should be concerned about or deathly afraid of. A glance at the headlines of the Sunday New York Times and one would think we were living inside a twisted nightmare.
Okay, so there are troubles about, some of them big, some of them small. What's new about that? The situation in Iraq is messy, national politics are poisonous, Wal-Mart is responsible for everything else (not really), and I can't get an X-Box 360 by the holidays. What is this world coming to??
I've decided to forgo the name-calling and anxiety-as-a-lifestyle, and become a rational optimist.
After all, being optimistic is my choice, it's up to me to Choose My Optimism! It's up to me to stand rational in the midst of so many little chickens that are here to convince me that the sky is falling. The sky isn't falling, and we now know that Chicken Little was just a bad movie.
The Fish! Philosophy reminds us that we have some fundamental choices about where we want to place our energy. While we don't have a choice about how some things are going in the world, we do have a choice of how we are going to respond, and what action we can take that will make a difference, at least for ourselves. Irrational fear and anxiety provide a context for making irrational decisions. When everything is the boogie man, we live in fear of everything.
I'm certainly not advocating arrogant individualism and ignorance, we have some problems to deal with, and some of them are daunting. But that has always been the case on this little globe, as Roseanne Rosannadanna said, "It's Always Something!". Whether it be how our companies are being run, or how a war is being fought thousands of miles away, it is best for us to remember our balance and what attitude we bring to our own backyard. It may be useful to remember our limits, there is only so much we can do about, well, everything!
For me, it has been instructive to watch children and how they are with the world. Most children don't stay worried for long, preferring to get back to the business of cultivating their imaginations, making up the world as they see it, and overlooking the distant in favor of the close-up.
My nephew Holden was at my home this weekend as part of a family gathering to honor the passing of my grandmother Inez (who lived to be 105!). When he walked into the house he gave me a large envelope and asked me to open it. Inside was a single piece of paper adorned with colorful jungle artwork, with a greeting scrawled across the page.
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Holden's message.
I think Holden may actually have it just right. What if it wasn't a grammatical error, and just a simple wish to "thank me, by giving YOU hug!"
I think a good goal this holiday season might be for all of us to thank someone by giving someone else a hug. It is pure abundance, free, full of possibility, and hopelessly loving. It doesn't deny the troubles around us, but reaches out to those closest to us. A worthy holiday thought.
It's the best world to live in and I know Holden would love to give me a hug on your behalf. For the record, I took the hug because you weren't here...pass it on.
Here are some actions you can take on Holden's behalf.
- Send thank-you cards to others, letting them know how awesome someone else is.
- Turn off the news channels, put away the newspapers, quit reading the Internet news for a period of 7 days, and notice how much better you'll feel! (you'll also notice that the world hasn't fallen apart)
- Choose your optimism. Life is so very short, why waste it with anxiety and worry?
- Send a gift card to a stranger, with a note that says, "I want to thank INSERT NAME HERE by sending you this gift on INSERT NAME HERE behalf.
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