So I listen to NPR every morning while I'm getting ready for the day. I do this for two reasons: 1.) I don't watch TV, so have to keep up with what's going on the world somehow, and 2.) I really don't care for most radio station morning shows...cause I'm not really that interested in celebrity gossip. (P.S. I just heard that JamieLynn Spears is preggo again...shocker. I know, I'm behind, I think I learned that while waiting in line a the grocery store.)
So me and NPR are wicked besties, but lately, and I hate to say this, listening practically gives me a panic attack. In addition to my usual stressors (i.e. consumer debt, my family, dating, demand on my time, etc.) I've now adopted global anxiety.
My internal dialog has gone from something like, "OMG, I have to pay off my credit card...really, where ARE the normal grown up men?...is 8:30 too early to go bed?"
to
"Great, we're either going to be Socialists or all be required to become NRA members, good work bipartisanship!...just why is it ok to bailout people who bought too much house??? ...Poor Georgia, shame on you Russia!...Is health care really a right like liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Where does it say that?....that Hugo Chavez really should stop with the getting everyone all worked up about the "Empire" we're not that bad, sheesh...OMG, I'm never going to get out of debt and neither will the US! Maybe everything will crash and American Express with let me off the hook...I'm moving to Italy...or Australia...or a hut in Bali"
So, I literally start having a mild panic attack this morning. Because the global anxiety hasn't replaced my personal anxiety, it's just ganged up with it to bully me. That's when I decided that a CD was a better alternative...at least for today.
So, I can't help but wonder (I know, I watch too much Sex And The City), what are we to do? Certainly I'm not the only person feeling the anxiety of our tumultuous times. How do we deal with it? Do we roll with punches and make the best of it or do we take a stand? And if we take a stand who and what are we standing up against? With globalization and age of information, the Boogie Man of ages past has become illusive and indistinct. He used to hide in our closest or under our beds, but now he's in our email, our electronic identities, our foreign policies, our suspicious neighbors, our toxic foods and unpredictable stock markets.
Do we fight this illusive enemy, Fear, or do we retreat to under our beds and inside our closets and hope for the best with the good old fashioned Boogie Man to keep us company?
Arturo Prat en el Trabajo
1 month ago
