'Don't worry; be happy' and other inalienable truths

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday October 20th, 2008

The election is over. Now what can we worry about?

Well, there is still no political direction, food is unsafe to eat, milk apparently can contain poison, the icecap is melting, and oil is running out, capitalism is failing, kids are increasingly violent and sexualized, poverty is rampant and death seems to be winning.

Cheery is it not?

I heard an interesting phrase this week, "the tyranny of the small" which I have decided is a great corrective for some of the negativity I get towards the state of the world. In this context I am choosing to interpret the phrase to mean that sometimes problems that really should only take up a small space in the corner of our mind blow up and become consuming.

Don't get me wrong, I realize that any one of the problems I listed above is likely to destroy us all. I also realize we need to take them seriously and make concrete changes in the way we live, work, and relate.

If, however, we allow ourselves to become consumed with the dark side of life, we fail to appreciate all of the good that surrounds us.

Anyone remember Baz Luhrmann? Probably not, he is most famous for a spoken word song from the eighties called "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)" which was hugely popular. The song is supposedly the text of a high school commencement speech, spoken aloud, while catchy techno-pop music plays lightly in the background for effect.

It was popular in part because it actually contained some of the most profound wisdom most of us had ever heard. One stanza in particular speaks to me in light of our nation's recent political gambit.

"Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old; and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders."

Well, that is the thing isn't it? How do we keep our negative cynicism from taking over our lives? How do we get from the point where we think it was so much better in the past and that today is so terrible to the point where we begin to see life right here, right now, as being okay?

In case you have not guessed this already, I am one of those rare people who find the autumn gloomy and dark. I know everyone else seems to love the cool nights and coloured trees. Give me 12 hours of sunshine and 25 degrees any day. So what I am saying is coloured by a tinge of oncoming seasonal affective disorder, but really . . .

The truth about the tyranny of the small is that we as a species cannot seem to function without something to worry about. Perhaps that is why we talk about the weather so much.
I am writing this column as a form of therapy to advocate a forgotten way of seeing the world; the good old, "glass half full" philosophy of life.

Yes, the days are getting colder and shorter; but that could mean more time for romance in front of a fireplace. Yes, the ice caps are melting and the water rising; but just think of the great surfing. Sure, the stock markets are crashing but pretty soon I will own IBM.
I'm kidding --- sort of.

Later in the song we find this verse, "Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday."

How true is that? A few weeks ago I had a "spell" that I thought was a heart attack. Heart attack had not even been on the radar of things I was worrying about until that moment. It could have been the last thing I ever worried about. Of all the things I had been worrying about that day, and wasting energy on, none of them have ever materialized.

Another song that became hugely popular in the 80s by an artist that never really released anything else into the mainstream was "Don't Worry" by Bobby McFerrin. It was catchy, but perhaps a little more pie in the sky than the sunscreen song.

He wrote, "Ain't got no place to lay your head. Somebody came and took your bed. Don't worry, be happy. The landlord says your rent is late. He may have to litigate. Don't worry, be happy."
I don't know that I am capable of letting go of all my worry. Perhaps some people are. Again, I hear this as a reminder not to let the worry overtake you. Do not give in to the tyranny of worry.

If, somehow, you can manage that, then you will be able to make a lot of decisions and do a lot of things in a freer way.

It is not likely the world is going to be a better place next year. If we are stuck in just being frightened and worried about it, though, nothing will ever change. We need a worldwide positivism movement. I'll try to start.