Silver Linings
I’ve been told I complain a lot. It comes naturally I guess. Teachers as a group complain a lot. It’s our favorite pastime in the teacher’s lounge. It extends to time at home and then our time here. There’s nothing wrong with letting off a little steam and cussing under your breath a little. Yet, at some point we need a dose of positivity.
Everyone has their only personal stuff and I’m no different. My summer has been spent in one doctor’s office after another as I try to manage the effects of diabetes on the body. I look for silver linings anywhere I can get them. Combine that with COVID and it’s enough to make anyone go running to the funny farm.
Ironically enough, that’s where I found a silver lining. Mental health is usually something no one focuses on until there is a mass shooting. Then, it becomes a convenient crutch to lean on until the news cycle moves to the next crisis. While Washington and Austin dither, some localities have been making changes to address it.
My local district now employs two student support counselors in every high school. They made the move following the Santa Fe shooting. Someone apparently decided that simply giving lip service to mental health was not enough. Funny, but it is the go to response for conservatives. Quarantine was bad because it damaged our mental health. Remote learning was bad because it damaged our mental health. While these facts are not deniable, it invites us to step up and actually make lasting change like our local school district.
Similarly, seeing the Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka stories from this summer further highlight mental health and our need to do something different. Their bravery hopefully will lead not only to lasting change within the athletic world, but also lasting change outside of it too. It will also hopefully lead to more of us admitting when we need a little help.
The worst events in our lives can have positive byproducts. It will never erase the negativity, but it can become a positive focus to get us through. That can happen both individually and collectively. I’d never want to live through the last five years again, but maybe something good can come from it. At least I can have the temerity to hope that’s true.
Thanks Nick, good luck with your health! Something I can always improve on but it is very important to maintain a healthy mind and body as stress can be very elusive and crippling. Left unchecked, stress manifests in the body and mind in many harmful ways.
Many years ago my left arm went numb and at the 3rd trip to the Doc’s he asked. “By the way, is there any stress in your life?” I thought for a minute and said, “Now that you mention it, my Dad died, my dog died, my Grandma died and I just got evicted from my affordable ocean front dream apartment! Yea I guess so!” Once I knew and accepted the stress the arm quickly got better!
Whether we like it or not, in today’s world, we are all under incredible stress. Not only with our daily stuff but with Covid, climate change, mass shootings, domestic terrorists republicans, etc, etc. etc.
1What to do? For myself I find talking about it (thanks again!), being helpful to others and Humor to be some stress relief remedies.
Pessimism vs. Optimism.
Only 20% of us are genetically inclined to optimism–the rest are inclined towards pessimism. In other words, most people are inclined towards finding fault and complaining about it.
Although the pessimist is more likely to survive in a eat or be eaten world of our ancient ancestors, the optimist is more likely to thrive in today’s world. The good news is you can learn optimist’s behaviors–like looking for positivity.
Keep up the effort–it will prove best for health and success and managing stress.
2The worst things in my life taught me there will be worse things in my life. I now know what I can do and what I can’t.
3Lex said it- confront them, decide which we can do something about and which we have to suck up and move on. Stress only screws up our minds, responses and most importantly health. Having two sons in Mexican street gangs 30 years ago taught me that.
I hope your visits in doctors’ offices are productive in finding ways to deal with damage: ways to repair damage and perhaps ways to avoid and minimize future damage.
I wind up having to grit my teeth in a number of discussions. I’m dissatisfied with both some who see nothing wrong and some who see only what is wrong.
The “nothing wrong” people seem to deny what is obvious to others. Living in privilege or not wanting to pay a price to change, they get along with whatever happens. “No climate change” people overlook or explain away all the eco-damage tightly linked by models to expectations of additional atmospheric pollutants.
The “everything is wrong” people seem nihilistic and often apathetic to problems, refusing to do anything because whatever they do will not be enough to totally solve a problem. I’ve been reading more and more people who say “changing a lightbulb isn’t enough — nothing I can do will save us from ecocide, so I’m not going to do anything or care about it anymore.”
We seem to lack the virtue my father had in abundance. A trained engineer, he looked at situations and described them as problems that could be solved, but which may not be worth the cost of solving. For example, he was physically active all his life. He injured his “good” knee (ironically) in a friendly badminton game during a family picnic. He learned the injury would cause problems for his usual activities (a problem). His doctor said a knee replacement would solve the problem (a solution). He thought about the operation and decided the limits of rehab was too high a cost for his 89-year-old life. So he ended 75 years of playing tennis and found other ways to stay active without adding damage or pain to his knee.
Neither the incessant optimism of Tigger or the constant pessimism of Eeyore is a sustainable answer. Lack of complaining and only complaining both make me grind my teeth.
4Matin Seligman’s book Learned Optimism is a great look at how we see the world IMHO. Explanatory style was something I’d never even considered until I read it in the nineties. But our level of optimism/pessimism is something we have more control of than I ever imagined.
5I think his work is fairly well regarded.
I saw where the ass. Attorney general for Texas called out Simone Biles as a “national embarrassment” today. Couldn’t read the Newsweek article on Apple News, but figured he’d be from Texas and a repugnantican. Maybe someone here knows more about this “person”.
6From: The Miami Herald
“Burying Florida’s COVID-19 stats is the governor’s MO,
as it was throughout 2020. So, if anyone asks, Florida has beat the virus.
Sure, more than 38,000 Floridians have died since the beginning of the pandemic. But let’s just call that a footnote.”
Miami Herald Editorial Board Jul 27, 2021
Florida makes up nearly a quarter of COVID-19 cases in U.S., Reports more deaths than any other state over last week ~
7https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt4BOo88UoA
I’d like to know the last time the Asst AG for TX competed internationally in gymnastics, though I’m guessing that WOULD have been a national embarrassment.
For all the negatives of Covid (acknowledging death, isolation, and loss of educational progress for kids), I’ve seen a few positives as well.
8– People learned they didn’t have to shop and drive so much, thus helping stave off planetary climate disaster for another week or two.
– More people learned to bake and/or cook and did more of it, in many cases improving their nutrition.
– And there has been widespread discussion of mental health in response to the pandemic, with a corresponding several-fold increase in people seeking therapy and willing to do the work it takes. It’s not just therapy for pandemic-related issues, it’s for long-standing problems, with an increase in acceptance that therapy can help.
Looks like the Texas deputy AG embarrassed Ken Paxton if that’s possible and is getting scolded. Ken, you’re so righteous. Looks like poor judgment is a department prerequisite to work the.
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