© 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
“May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!”- Daniel Webster
The above is such a lovely sentiment. All Webster needs to add is a land least impacted by fear. Some people seem completely happy despite the media-spread fears. Maybe they pay no attention to the media. Others say those who are unconcerned just have brains of custard.
OK, so I have brains of custard since I do not spend much time in fear. In fact, I think now is the best time ever to be alive in our country. We have a lovely country, and such a beautiful state. While I occasionally carp about freedoms lost, I still live in the freest country. Most times I wake up happy and go to sleep, still happy.
Some people are held by “The Big Fear” of what might happen to us individually and as a nation. They spend too much time with the media. Think of the people petrified by the fear that SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) might spread into a pandemic. It did not. Or the fear of Mad Cow Disease (nope, Oprah, our beef is safe and good) and the very serious pandemic of hair loss. It is not lost; I find it in the drain daily. All of that is wasted worriation, as a friend says.
This last week the markets soared and plunged. Who knows if our retirement savings will be there next week, much less when we would like to retire? Run or hide with our money? A friend said, “Depends.” I take it to mean when you get your broker statement this month you should be wearing that product.
We individually wonder which fountain-of-youth products we should superstitiously try. And, should the government forbid us from being superstitious about supplements that they contend do us no good. Can we just call those unproven pills maladaptive coping mechanisms?
More so, do we have a right to embrace unproven products? Linus Pauling believed that taking Vitamin C in big doses was important. Our government has told us not to bother. What if I just want to believe Pauling?
Must we watch cholesterol or does watching everything we eat cause us to destroy ourselves with worry? What should we do?
Further, we are in the middle of a very confusing election where, as the saying goes, there is more barking than tail wagging. I have a cap that says, “Wag more Bark less.” I believe that is the best way we can act. We have 24/7 barking and darn little wagging from most of our leaders.
The most prosperous times
Here we are in the most prosperous times that humans have ever lived and in the best health that humans have ever experienced. Compare today to 100 years ago and we are gliding along in the best of times. Yet the media Chicken Littles squawk 24/7.
Years ago when I first started paying attention to elections someone quipped, “If Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon were in a boat in the ocean and the boat sank, who would be saved?” The answer: the American people. I have used that joke every four years since then.
As the fear-mongers were shoveling another fear layer on us this week I started to wonder if we Americans are more afraid now that in other times. Years ago I used to eat whatever I wanted without alarm. I would stop in little semi-dives here and in other countries with a pleasant expectation that I would get a good bite to eat and no illness.
My optimism worked for me. My first car did not have seat belts and yet I felt completely safe. When I was a youngster I had a lead soldier making kit where I melted lead in an electric pot and poured it into molds sitting on an asbestos pad. Lead and asbestos; what a combination. It was neat to flip dots of hot lead here and there. I survived, apparently without harm.
I do remember the nuclear bomb drill we had in which we school kids prepared for nuclear attack… pencils in the tray, crouch under desk and wait for the all-clear before standing up after a nuclear attack on the school.
When I was young we did not have television so we all listened to radio. And they kept the radio on even when my brother and I went to bed. With the lights off in our room I could still hear distinctly programs about communism.
I was six years old and the program said we were all in the hurt locker because of the threat of communists. They were going to come to my house and do bad things to me. But then I would look out my door at my father sitting calmly, not reacting to the program. He had fought in the front lines of war and was a big guy so I would pad back to my bed safe that my father could handle any communists who came to our door.
Overall, I have been happy most of my life through thick and thin and continue to be happy even in the face of dangers. I divide my worries into what I can change and throw the rest away. And I limit my exposure to media even though I write a weekly column.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.