In pulling America out of the deep depression that began in 1929 President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a tide turning speech that had this quote, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” That is the stuff of which change is made. If you have ever had a truly negative attitude and somehow crossed the street to the sunny side discovering the absolute power of a positive attitude and then had your life changed for the good because of your new attitude then you might truly understand the significance of then President Roosevelt’s statement.I get the feeling that we have been bombarded with negativism for much too long here in America and it is time for a real effort on the part of all of us to look for the good, yes the positive side; lift our expectations and then get to work making good things happen. Now I can just hear all that grumbling going on inside your heads right now. Sure, I too got the stuffings kicked out of me in the market. Sure, several members of my family have been biting the bullet with unpaid voluntary weeks off without compensation. Their incomes have shrunk and we keep hearing daily that it will get much worse before it gets better. Now, you tell me, what kind of a message is that to feed to our sensitive subconscious minds? I’ve got a song I wrote some time ago about a miserable character who sings about how his life is going nowhere. I have him wail this line. “And somewhere I read, somebody said, ‘the hard times are ahead of us right now.” I used to have a great copy machine tech who would visit my office and on every visit he would ask to hear that song. When I asked him why he liked it he said, “Because it is good to know that some poor SOB is worse off than I am.” If you e-mail me I will send you that song. It might brighten your day or it just might push you over the cliff.
Will you try a little experiment with me? Every time you find yourself fretting about the future just take a moment and count your blessings. Most times fear is just false evidence appearing real. For that Goin’ Nowhere song write me at artfettig@aol.com – Art Fettig
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