Relax....

Are things as bad as they seem, or do we just hear about the horror more in these days of instant information?

The world is going to hell in a hand basket, violence is everywhere you look. Marriages are ending in vitriol at every turn and children are being forced to deal with situations beyond their comprehension. Scandal and partisan bitching are the order of the day in politics. Intolerance of race, religion, and sexual preference is rampant throughout society. Diseases are morphing and killing more people than ever. Geopolitical situations are sitting on powder kegs awaiting a spark, which would ignite war that could involve the entire globe. More children than ever are disappearing each day. Natural disasters abound and the earth itself seems to be revolting against us.

I see and hear these things everywhere I go. It indeed seems that there is no hope for my kids, they are doomed to have lives of horrid peril, crawling through duct work and fighting off all manner of evil to squeeze out a daily life amongst the rubble of the society we are surely destroying.

After much pondering, research, study and reading of endless figures and statistics, I have come to a simple conclusion about all of this….

Bullshit.

While there are things that do seem ridiculous, these things have been with us throughout our history as humans… I read magazines and articles from circa World War Two and saw many of the same things being said then as are being said now about current military actions in Iraq and around the Middle East. I’ve read newspaper stories from all around the country dating from the twenties containing stories of parents killing their own children, mass shootings, missing kids, wars in far away countries, devastating earthquakes, fires, floods and storms…. You could simply retype the same things over and over and it would fit year after year…

Coupled with these stories were constant warnings about the ecology of our planet falling apart from getting colder to getting warmer, and the end of the world, as we know it being just over the horizon. Group after group of zealots have soap boxed the end of mankind for the entirety of our existence. I even read an article by a “noted scientist” that warned that cosmic winds were headed for this planet would rip our atmosphere away from Earth within ten years… That was in the 30’s…

“Nowadays we can’t live like our parents did… One parent works and another stays at home with the kids…”

You can’t?

How many people do you know live in a six to seven hundred square foot home, with one car, no air-conditioning, no cable television, no video games, no cell phones, no internet, just one phone line with a rotary phone provided by the phone company with no call waiting – forwarding – or answering machine, eat meals at home every day, do not go shopping unless its a holiday or birthday, never stay in step with fad and fashion, go out to eat once or twice a month.. maybe, rarely go to movies, and usually have people over to play cards or cook out for entertainment?

If you were to sit down and look at your life in those terms.. Do you think you could live like that and get by one paycheck? I am sure you could….

I read articles that were published during the founding of this country and was shocked with the amount of partisan sniping that took place… Very similar to what you see on talking head television these days.. Accusations of everything from affairs to stealing of public funds…

All in all, things may be harsh, jobs difficult to find, prices going up, wages remaining stagnant, nickel and diming by government… but to think of how people felt during the dustbowl or depression kind of puts things in perspective…

I hope we can be thankful for what we have and enjoy whats around us and not let the anxiety and angst we feel affect the quality of our lives too much…