There is a condition today … a malady really that just sprung to my mind I had to write about. This is an emotional purging of sorts. As such, it may appear a bit random. Who cares … here goes. 

I’ve been accused at times of being too much of a Pollyanna. Overworking to find the positives amidst the most dire, negative situations. Ok, guilty as accused. But as I look at, listen to those around me? Read the papers? Watch the tv news? When I meet or have lunch with friends? So often the talk turns to the external. The negative. Stuff outside ourselves over which we have no control. The weather. Last Sunday’s NFL loss. And the greatest culprit of all … politics! Rarely things substantive. But so normal. So human. 

I feel compelled when hearing people consume themselves with these mental masturbations to try and counterbalance the conversation, their laments. Let’s find a flicker of light … a breather of pluses from all this suffocating stuff.

“How ‘bout those pathetic Falcons!”

“Oh, it’s rainy and cold tomorrow.”

“Joe!! Can you believe that a’hole?!”

Ok … I get it. But can’t we try to punch through this negative veneer, and just find a little something more meaningful? Please? More redeeming to talk about?

Honest admission. When I’m with those who regurgitate the headlines like they think they’re Walter Cronkite? Or they pontificate that they’ve just informed me that Biden screwed up Afghanistan? Or that they think they can predict the stock market … 100%? Sorry, make me puke. Nothing is more “chewing gum” for the mind than this

 Rather, I’m trying, not fully successfully, to focus on those good things in my life I can control. Those things I value at my core. That help me know more who I am, who I want to be. Not who I hope or need the external world to be. These things will not consume my attention. Hope I’m clear. 

I’m most vocal on this issue with my family. Deception in DC; Global warming; Dems vs Republicans; AOC! I tell them … “Who gives a crap!”

LIVE YOUR LIFE! 
Let’s talk about the challenges at school. How’s your job going? Here’s a book for you. Came upon this great recipe the other day. What good happened this week? Not so good? Tell me about your mom … I know she’s ill.

Love is what God is calling us to. To love each other, love others. Futile anger re external issues, the toxic conflicts of your day? No! Repel them!

Embrace your personal values. Define and embrace what your life of personal integrity is about … and live it! You are most intimately connected to those you love. Those you respect. Never neglect them by focusing on all the strife, the negatives in our world. External from you … over which you have no control. Focus on them.

God lives in you. He lives in me. Our turning toward Him vs away from Him may to some seem too positive? Call me a Pollyanna, any time. If I’m too positive? Thanks for the compliment!

I’ll live my life. What a confirming, positive place to be. 

Hope you choose to do so too.