Happy Face 21

I really don't see much point in getting too worried about what's coming down in the world. We have always had problems. But our lovely and boring lives here in smug little Canada can become so stiflingly uneventful that we have to have some kind of excitement, which is to say, when we are not going into meltdowns about the state of the horrible world around us. For example, the way the good burghers of Moosejaw, Saskatchewan have been getting all in a lather because they no longer have the world's biggest moose sculpture, since that credit now goes to a town in Norway, which also has resident moose, by the way. I have heard the mayor of Moosejaw interviewed recently on the radio, and he has been waxing apopleptic. Though surely this is all theatre. Or maybe it isn't. But it is rather nice and quaint getting all indignant and mad at something so inconsequential, given how emotionally exhausted we must feel at times worrying about homelessness and climate change and possible nuclear war. I know, I know, Gentle Reader, the stakes are so much higher now. In other eras in the remote and not so remote past, our ancestors had only to worry about getting eaten by sabre tooth tigers, or overrun by foreign barbarians, or perishing in epidemics of plague or getting sacrificed to bloodthirsty gods, or getting burned at the stake for believing the wrong things, or getting their heads chopped off for believing the wrong things, or not getting enough food to eat...All those things were legitimate concerns. But then came industrialization, population growth, nuclear weapons, global warming, and growing income inequality, and more population growth, and corporate greed and more inequality, and more disenfranchized citizens electing to power ignorant and despotic morons such as the Dump in the Oval Office, after years of being ignored by their governments, no matter how much their quality of life and income stability were going down the toilet. And, thanks to the internet and social media, we all have instantaneous information to keep us up to date on such minutieae of international developments and intrigue such as we never would have noticed or even heard about in the past. What we don't know about cannot keep us awake every night. And we love to worry. We are hard-wired for anxiety. Remember the saying, if you are not angry yet, then you have not been paying attention? And we are paying attention because, well...because we have to. Life was never particularly easy for our ancestors, who always had to be on the lookout for the next danger lurking around the corner, and we, in our relatively secure and insular Canadian lives, have inherited this kind of hard-wiring, so we are going to get neurotic, anxious and at times we are going to even wax apopleptic over the size of a silly moose statue. It means our alarrm system is working, even if it is a bit superflous. Or is it? i like the idea of balance. While keeping one eye on the nefarious developments around us, and strategizing on how we are going to address them, to keep the other eye on our own lives and the people around us. To make a priority out of getting adequate rest, nutrition, exercise and enjoyment of life. Most of all, to simply give thanks for each moment of our lives, embracing this sacred and divine gift of the holy present, and to live in that holy present where we will also touch and be touched by the Holy Presence, because we will find that we are not really alone, that we never were alone, and out of this source of love and joy to touch one another's lives in ways that are healing and redemptive. We have ony to offer and give our entire lives to this wonderful divine process, Gentle Reader.