Whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Or we are advised to whistle whenever afraid. Our arts world is filled with advice as to how to overcome moments of sadness or worry. Sometimes this advice works merely by singing inside one's head and at other times it appears as if nothing will help.
And what if one is beset by problems both large and small, both personal and universal? What does one do then? Though nothing will ever take away worry and concern 100%, there are ways to at least divert that channel of worry to a smaller, less prominent area.
What do I do? When the legs of mine start to jitter or a thumb appears to move of its own volition, yes, I worry. Yes, I can get sad and concerned for the future. When a score on one of those brain games goes the wrong way I wonder if I am losing it, ignoring the fact of increasing complications of the games or tiredness of the player or simply the natural fluctuations of a game player!
What I do find is that true enough, that old maxim is correct. Laughter is the best medicine. I will think of the kids; I will wonder how children from the same clan can be so different. One granddaughter never makes a demand or request and another is the stimulus to the economy all by herself. One little one lectures me on the intricacies of baseball while the other regales me with a lesson learned from his Judaic studies. And it all makes me smile. Laughter at a funny memory. All will do to take the mind away from the at times awfulness of reality.
Irony and gallows humor is yet another way to go. It takes the edge off. For example, how could one not laugh when Manafort's lawyers whine about 'false' information given out about their client - which did not happen - but this from the camp of tell as many lies as one can; pump up one's expertise in falsehoods!!! Ya gotta love it!!
Or turn from the page of politics and the scary world they present to the page of the volcano in Hawaii. I think of the time when we walked on the caldera, saw a rift, saw molten lava and vents of gas. It was an adventure, yet vague enough with the last major volcano disaster there in 1990.And now I watch with heart in throat and wonder at the awesomeness of nature, its fierce power and beauty at the same time. I wonder. Is there a lesson here for all of us. Do we stress too much of the 'stuff' of life rather than the reality all around us? Have we forgotten that we are small and almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things, yet wonder again at the power we have to rival this stream of fire, all by our misusing other powers of nature. Do we learn? Anything? I kinda doubt it.
Will we ever learn to be and do the right thing? Will we ever stop warring against each other, trying to wrest all we can from another? Will we ever be evenhanded in our dealings and demands with and on others? Will we ever stop using the word 'proportionately' when discussing the defensive actions of Israel as they keep 50,000 people in 13 locations from overwhelming the forces of defense and break through the border fence and head toward Nahal Oz or any of the other small villages on and in the land of Israel and there kill, kidnap, maim and destroy, men women, children, the soldiers. It matters not. So what is proportional? Should Israel ask for a moment of attention, count the invaders shot and then ask among the Israelis to volunteer to be shot or killed so proportionality is there!!!!! Have we not lost enough of our Jewish compatriots? Are we once again to allow ourselves to be slaughtered while the world stands aside? Will the world then cry crocodile tears at this once again? There is no proportionality in death. One defends oneself and one's country from those who would harm and destroy it and all its inhabitants within.
I think it is time to pull out the albums again or flip thru the pictures online. Time to crack a sick joke. Time to whistle or think of packages or the glow in a grandchild's face upon spotting you at the airport. Time to talk to a friend - well, a bit later on, anyway. Time to find that chocolate! Would that the whole world would eat that piece of chocolate every day.
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