It hadn't occurred to me that what may be positive thinking in one person's view is not to another. When I had a patient dying of cancer, she was told to read mind over body stuff and told me that she had felt punished by having to read it. She had tried to live a clean and stress-free life but facts and people around her never let that happen. One might ask what her genetics also had to do with her illness. At any rate, she felt that it was expected of her to cure her own cancer with mind over body and she was failing to be able to do it.
When Obama ran on a platform of Hope and Change I could easily relate to both concepts. However, the more I thought of it, I realized that too many people believe prayer is hope, about which they do nothing to advance themselves or their fellow man. Hard work and determination must accompany hope if change is to be the result. Those who pray that a higher power will do it for them, or may even think the President they voted for will do it for them instantly, are living an illusion. Only fools believe an accurate diagnosis means a total cure with no assist from the patient.
Positive thinking and hope make your body feel better. Less cortisol accumulates and your brain deteriorates more slowly as the years go by, giving reason to not leaving clinical depressions untreated. Just as 'you can't cure stupid', positive thinking alone cures little. It allows you to see happiness where others miss it, beauty when others see only blemishes, humor in even a hopeless situation. Positive thinking allows you to take control of your own life rather than waiting for someone else to do it for you. Positive thinking, however, must have facts and reality as a base, otherwise we must call it delusional thinking, which I believe is as contagious and lethal as the swine flu, or H1N1 as we lovingly refer to it.
Rise, Americans, not to do battle but to support the man you appointed to do a job for you. Give him time and ideas, not edicts. It is, after all, his job, not yours, to run the country.
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sunday, March 2, 2008
PANDORA'S BOX LEFT WITH ONLY HOPE
The Greek myth of Pandora is rather a good metaphor for the United States at this time in history. Our government, if we think of it as in charge of Pandora's box, opened the box letting all the evils in the world run loose. As with Pandora's box, before it was shut up again, the only thing that remained inside was Hope.
Hope, in and of itself is not a tool. It solves nothing but may be the inspiration to start action that may then become a solution. Hope and Obama are not limited to one another as it seems people have begun to believe. Hope can be within any of us and all of us. However, without doubt, whoever is elected as President of the United States is in a far better position to effect the change being hoped for than an ordinary citizen with nothing but his hope (or prayer, which is the same thing).
Inaction, attended to only by prayer, is a disaster waiting to happen. Real change happens when action takes place, and since there is strength in numbers, the more people pushing for that change, the more likely it is to happen. In yesterday's blog I covered the ways that action can be taken by the three governmental branches. When enough people want change, it will begin to be considered. Witness that it has taken 15 years after the Clinton's first attempt to reconstruct the health care system, to mobilize people to want to fight for it again We are land of people used to instant gratification and do not brook disappointment easily, nor fondness for those who disappoint us, regardless of reality. It looks like Obama has a really good chance of being the Democratic nominee. As such, if he makes it to the White House, it will be due to the disgust felt by so many people, Republicans and Independents, who have changed their 2004 support and moved to support the Democrats. Should he be elected, it will only be a matter of time before the unrealistic expectations set up by the campaigning and people's 'hopes', will topple him off the pedestal people have put him on. No amount of his attempt to say, as I heard him today, "I will make mistakes." Sadly, most people have not accepted that fact and all those voters who heard the campaign promises will expect delivery as quickly as they expected Nancy Pelosi to turn the Congress around. Reality has never been a traveling partner with hope and campaign promises.
Hope, in and of itself is not a tool. It solves nothing but may be the inspiration to start action that may then become a solution. Hope and Obama are not limited to one another as it seems people have begun to believe. Hope can be within any of us and all of us. However, without doubt, whoever is elected as President of the United States is in a far better position to effect the change being hoped for than an ordinary citizen with nothing but his hope (or prayer, which is the same thing).
Inaction, attended to only by prayer, is a disaster waiting to happen. Real change happens when action takes place, and since there is strength in numbers, the more people pushing for that change, the more likely it is to happen. In yesterday's blog I covered the ways that action can be taken by the three governmental branches. When enough people want change, it will begin to be considered. Witness that it has taken 15 years after the Clinton's first attempt to reconstruct the health care system, to mobilize people to want to fight for it again We are land of people used to instant gratification and do not brook disappointment easily, nor fondness for those who disappoint us, regardless of reality. It looks like Obama has a really good chance of being the Democratic nominee. As such, if he makes it to the White House, it will be due to the disgust felt by so many people, Republicans and Independents, who have changed their 2004 support and moved to support the Democrats. Should he be elected, it will only be a matter of time before the unrealistic expectations set up by the campaigning and people's 'hopes', will topple him off the pedestal people have put him on. No amount of his attempt to say, as I heard him today, "I will make mistakes." Sadly, most people have not accepted that fact and all those voters who heard the campaign promises will expect delivery as quickly as they expected Nancy Pelosi to turn the Congress around. Reality has never been a traveling partner with hope and campaign promises.
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