If It's Not One Thing It's Another...Or Is It?

All you have to do is read "Dear Abby's" column for a week to realize that people are simply not satisfied.  Sure, many of the letters written to Dear Abby pertain to serious problems, but what about those letters from happily married husbands who are worrying about boyfriends their wives had 20 years ago?  Or couples who are arguing about leaving the shower curtain open or closed?  [These two letters really did appear in the paper yesterday.]

As Gilda Radner's character "Roseanne Roseannadanna" would say, "It's always something!  If it's not one thing, it's another..."  If it's not getting fired and not being able to pay your rent, it's forgetting your coupons in your other purse and not saving 15 cents on that box of Ziploc bags. 

You may be stressing out today about a very serious problem, but rest assured that someone down the street feels just as bad about their TiVo not recording "Grey's Anatomy".  Scary, but true.  People love drama and I'm not referring to the TiVo'ed ones.

When you learn what is truly worth agonizing over and what is trivial, you've made progress towards a happier you.  You can always get your drama fix on TV instead.

Nothing to fear but Fear itself...

If you don't already know this, I'm telling you now: Everything changes. I didn't understand this til I was in my 30's and I'm still learning even now. I noticed lately, for instance, that I feel saddest or hopelessest (just made up that word) in the morning when I wake up. Strange, but after I've done my washing up, much of my dreariness seems to have gone down the drain. Interesting!

The world is going through a massive shift this year and we don't know how long this uncertainty will last or what the outcome will be. Hopefully something good will come from this huge malfunction resulting from greed and immorality. A return to basics, I suppose? Hard lessons on what's truly important in life? How to do manual labor? Renewed interest in canned Spam and sardines? I don't know.

I watched "Law and Order" the other night and since they like to advertise "ripped from the headlines", I'm assuming people are flocking to street fights in New York City. Can "Thunderdome" be far off?

Cheer up! Is it another internet myth or is it true that the happiest people live in Nigeria? That's what I read several years ago, and that was BEFORE the Nigerians scammed everyone with those "please help me claim my money" emails. *LOL* Maybe that's why they're so happy, they had that up their sleeves?

More likely, however, it just shows that the simplest life can be just as happy or happier than one full of unnecessary expensive crap. The Brahmin on the East Coast may look down on us simple people, but having less to keep track of or worry about is IMHO bliss. Imagine how some people worry if their new BMW will get dinged or if someone will have a nicer suit or handbag. I don't know about you, but I breathe a lot easier after the first ding. I've been breathing easy for ten years now.

I heard on "The View" that some ladies judge others by their handbag. Holy crap! I honestly had no clue...imagine being naive at 55! I laughed out loud at how pathetic that was. Why on earth would I care what some dumb purse-obsessed lady thought of me??? I mean obviously the values of that kind of person is seriously skewed and frankly I'd PREFER not to be admired by that kind of misguided fool. Oh.. I think her name is Elisabeth Hasselbeck. *LOOOOOOL*

What is my point? My point is that we often THINK we need something--be it a certain guy or girl, or a certain Jimmy Choo shoe--but really, we don't. All we need is a mind that can easily wrap around any situation.

And therefore, we have nothing to fear but fear itself...or even, we should desire not to desire.