Don't Worry, Be Happy

There are many reasons for me to be worried these days. The news rarely has anything good to say. My wife has been unemployed for over six months (after over ten years in her company) and no one wants to hire an older nurse. The company I work for is suffering much like most of American businesses so my job (after 12 years) isn't too secure. All around me I see others getting "downsized". What little investment for retirement we had, has dwindled to half value thanks to the death spiral of the stock market. Our health is suffering, our vehicles getting to the point where we need to replace them but can't afford it. Our income is cut in half while expenses like utilities and groceries keep going up.

On the governmental front, we've come out of eight years of increasingly fascist leaning government to replace it with an increasingly Marxist leaning one.

Then add in the media boogie-men of Global Warming, pandemics, looming life terminating events (calderas, giant asteroids, etc) and an increasing number of mass homicides.

However, this morning it dawned on me that instead of thinking about all of the things that are going wrong, I should instead, focus on all of the things that are going right.

My wife and I are still happily married, our son is doing great in his corporate IT job and has survived several rounds of lay-offs. The weather here in Las Vegas is nice as is usual for this time of year. I'm still healthy enough to enjoy riding my Goldwing motorcycle to the job I still have. And I still have the Internet and access it via one of the fastest home broadband connections in the United States (though that's only a fraction of the speeds available in Europe and at a much higher price.)

So this week, I'm going to try my best to follow the advice of Bobby McFerrin:

"In every life we have some trouble 
When you worry you make it double 
Don't worry, be happy......"

After all, this has been the mantra of peasants for over a thousand years.

/me reaches for the Kool-aid