This is the first in a series of posts on some of my values - tenets that I use (or try to, at least) to guide me as I go through my life. Some are biblical, while others come from personal experience and have been sharpened into my very existence by the pain that caused the lesson in the first place.
Value One: Nothing is worth massive stress. Nothing.
It's no secret within my family that I hated working at Pizza Hut. A few uninformed among them believe that it is because I'm supposedly lazy. I say "uninformed", because it is much nicer than calling them "ignorant morons" or "idiots". I worked for Pizza Hut for almost ten years, six of them as a store assistant manager. You cannot be lazy and work in that position. I would never have lasted that long in that position, had that accusation actually been true.
Now, I have nothing against Pizza Hut personally, but it was a placeholding job that kept the bills paid and protected my family with much-needed insurance. So, until I finished my schooling and went out into the workforce, I was stuck in a job that filled me with a lot of stress and pretty much ruined my days off.
One day, when I was going straight from a history class to work, I tossed my bookbag in the car trunk, along with my car keys, and shut the hatch.
I cannot describe the next ten to fifteen seconds. What I do know is that it involved a mixture of panic, anxiety, and fury. After all, my car doors were still locked, and my spare set was at my apartment with my wife (nearly a mile away).
Then my rational self took over. First, I put more coins in the parking meter. Ball State University's parking ticketers were a diligent lot (they still are, as of 2017), because, despite the university's claims that it was a non-profit institution, it actively searches for any way they can legally extract more money from their students, faculty, staff, and just about anyone who comes onto their property and surrounding areas. It's as if a swarm of mosquitos has found a nudist camp. That's how actively they go after others and their money.
That's another subject, however.
Next, I called the Pizza Hut store where I worked (during this time, Muncie, Indiana had five Pizza Huts to choose from) and reported that I was going to be late.
Then, seeing as there were no nearby shuttle buses, I walked towards my apartment. As I said before, I had nearly a mile of walking to undertake.
As I walked, I learned a truth that many people have already known. Walking clears your mind. Their is a reason that so many Old Testament prophets went on a journey with nothing more than the clothing on their backs. Walking leaves you alone with the Lord, and "baggage" only gets in the way.
By the time I got home, I was in a near-Zen state. I retrieved the spare set of keys and made it to a shuttle bus, then back to my car. I was in such a relaxed and calm state that I came up with that value on the spot.
I even tried my hand at translating it into ancient Greek, though I'm not too sure I did it right.
That value has helped me keep things in perspective quite a few times over the years.
After all, in ten years, locked keys in a car trunk is simply going to be a nothing event that happened some time back. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't even matter at all.
That value has recently been a real help in dealing with people who try to manipulate my emotions and feelings.
I've mentioned in a previous post that I don't listen to talk radio because of how they are able to manipulate one's feelings. They actively try to put stress into one's life for their own benefit.
That's why, on hearing about former Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes's recent death, all I can say is "Rest in peace," and that's it. Ailes, more than any one person recently, worked hard to terrify people about the Clintons, President and Michelle Obama, poor people, minorities, Democrats, immigrants, foreigners - any group of people who was - in his network's view - trying to destroy a conservative's way of life.
Based on the success of Fox News Channel and the election of Donald Trump into the presidency, he succeeded. And, as a result, a lot of people are scared, stressed out, and angry for no real legitimate reason whatsoever. Why would they do this to their viewers/listeners?
It's simple, actually. Fear sells. If you can be scared silly into believing that Barack Obama will order that your guns or wealth be confiscated, then you can be "convinced" into buying what their commercials are selling.
After all, the use of fear has driven up the sales of guns and weaponry to the private sector, not to mention the sales of hidden survival shelters (what used to be called "Fallout Shelters" or "Bomb Shelters". It also is used to push up the sales of survival foods and the investment in gold.
Not that I'm putting down investment firms, gun dealers, or those who supply the so-called "Survivalist" market. Not at all. After all, I invest money, I am pro-gun, and I find the survival market interesting to read about, but if you can be convinced that by eating a particular candy bar (or washing with a particular brand of soap), you'll be protected from the "looney lefties", then sales to panicked conservatives can, and almost certainly will, be increased.
Don't think that liberals are immune to this. Those who are in a panic over President Trump are just as likely to be manipulated as the conservatives are.
Most name brands have the desire to increase their sales no matter what! But, in doing so, they do not want to be labeled with anything that shuts out another market.
That is also another subject.
My point is that I have too much of my life to live to waste it hating (or fearing) people a particular news channel tells me to hate.
My life is too important to waste it blaming a class of people that others tell me I should blame for my problems. That's the kind of nonsense that Nazi Germany used to stir up hatred against the Jews, by the way.
I don't have the time to waste my life on fear. If you're willing to let a news channel use tools on you that the Third Reich used on its citizens, then I pity you.
I don't have the time to waste my life on unnecessary stress, nor do I have the time to let others introduce unnecessary stress on my life.
Now, what about a death in the family or news of a catastrophic illness? After all, such events can throw the most ordered life into a turmoil and cause a lot of emotional havoc.
This might sound facetious, but even those events are not worth massive stress.
I am being serious here. Stress and worry, while normal reactions, do not help the situation. We have little to no control over such things, so we should work on what we can control. That includes lifestyle changes that improves one's physical and mental health, plus praying for others as well as ourselves.
It may not seem like much, but it's such an important step.
After all, we shouldn't stress ourselves out, you know.
That's all for now.
Peace be unto you.
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