I don’t generally make New Year’s resolutions, but I can get behind this one:
Prepper Potpourri brings up some important facts about the power of positive thinking in this video. Frankly, I think if you buy into believing everything is “doomed,” it severely impedes your ability to accurately assess situations and stay motivated to find creative solutions. I do mention my late husband a lot and he certainly had plenty of flaws, but he also had the most irreverent sense of humor (like many infantry soldiers), that helped me stay calm through bad situations. He often had me laughing out loud even in the midst of some pretty awful situations. He also didn’t want to hear about “Oh my God, we’re all going to die!” type drama. He was the type of person who would keep trying until he couldn’t try anymore. I am the worrying kind of person, so I have to work at seeing the glass as half full.
The other thing I’m working on is trying to listen more rather than jump into reacting, which is what most of social media runs on – hot takes and people who get worked up about one hot topic blazing across news and social media after another. I’ve done plenty of that too, but I’m working on breaking that habit and taking some time to think about things more, consider other angles and doing a bit of research on some things before getting entrenched in a position.
I’ll mention the young football player who collapsed during a football game the other night as the type of instantaneous reaction I’m talking about. Within minutes some right-wing pundits were ranting about the dangers of COVID vaccines. On the left, the same sort of leaping to conclusions flourishes too, heck, just look at how many things are blamed for climate change, even being tall. I kid you not, a NYT guest essayist, Mara Altman, penned a piece putting forth the idea that short people are better for the environment. I’ll quote from a NY Post write-up about this NYT essay (I don’t subscribe to the NYT):
“Altman continued, “Short people don’t just save resources, but as resources become scarcer because of the earth’s growing population and global warming, they may also be best suited for long-term survival (and not just because more of us will be able to jam into spaceships when we are forced off this planet we wrecked).”
Who needs tabloids with space alien stories by the supermarket registers anymore, when you can get all that from America’s paper of record…
Have a nice day!
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