Bad news travels fast and disrupts our daily lives. Good news travels slowly but lasts. It takes some time to understand the impacts of either, though in our age everything seems quickly received but seldom thoroughly digested.
As I reflect on the old year, there seems to be more bad news to consume my worries — the rising costs of goods and services, political divisions, wars and rumors of wars, unethical characters occupying key positions of power.
I was raised to expect bad news, and I seldom have been disappointed. But if I let the bad news control me, I will worry more and live less with hope. It’s an old belief embedded in my mind long ago while I was a child: Expect the worst and you won’t be disappointed.
I was thinking of writing some grand new year hopes for the nation — perhaps getting Congress to reach a commonsense health care insurance plan for all Americans. But then I remembered that during the American Revolution a congressional delegate concluded that the only time it moved quickly was “when it was ignorant of the matter.”
I also thought it might help if the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its decision to give the president king-like powers, but I soon realized it would probably not do so. Thus far, however, lower courts have ruled against the Trump administration 93% of the time when his agency actions have been challenged, according to the New York School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity.
Looking for bad news wherever it can find it, some claim “the country’s going to the dogs.” I feel kindly about my dog, so I decided to try on a historian’s wider view. David McCullough, one of my favorite American historians, provided a more hopeful assessment: “When bad news is riding high and despair in fashion, when loud mouths and corruption seem to own center stage, when some keep crying that the country is going to the dogs, remember it’s always been going to the dogs in the eyes of some … and that 90% or more of the people are good people, generous-hearted, law-abiding, good citizens who get to work on time, do a good job, love their country, pay their taxes, care about their neighbors, care about their children’s education, and believe … in the ideals upon which our way of life is founded.”
I hope he’s right. But maybe I need to shift my perspective from big, bad news to one closer to home: myself. I need to start with myself having realized the world will probably go its way. I need to stop thinking the worst.
I’ve tried putting a rubber band around my wrist, and each time I felt bad news coming on, I snapped it to stop the thoughts. The only result was a sore wrist. It’s the kind of training you use on your dog, minus the rubber band but with a doggie treat and pat on the head.
If you can ward off the negativity perhaps you can shift your focus to more hopeful things. First and most important, you are alive. Second, the planet hasn’t been destroyed (yet).Third, if you have a dog, she still loves you.
Here are 10 personal new year resolutions l made last year to focus my mind on positive things to diminish negativity:
• Write down and post a list of things not to do.
• Before rushing into a new day, pause to observe a few minutes of silence.
• Watch or listen to only one newscast a day for no more than ten minutes.
• Go soak in a warm water bathtub.
• Read a poem.
• Say thanks to anyone who serves you, such as a postal carrier.
• Call a friend or family member.
• Listen to or play soothing music.
• Take a short walk.
• Discard this list. It will only add to your negativity when you fall short.
A simple, good list, for sure. Did I follow it? Of course not. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and I have these every few minutes.
There’s a famous quote attributed to W.C. Fields about trying to make things work, but after a while giving up because “there’s no use being a damn fool about it.”
I can always fall back on Quitter’s Day in early January and just give up, realizing I’ll never reach my goals anyway. Suddenly I feel a great deal better, one day at a time. I suppose that’s my one new goal for the new year: Live each day fully.
John C. Morgan is a writer and teacher with few goals for the new year. He can be reached at drjcm1000@yahoo.com
