don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

"You should treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster."
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999)

Disasters are serious business; they are not trivial to the ill affected. Yet, however tragic the events and circumstances, at some point victims and observers alike face an unavoidable "now what?" point in time. Life continues and the future depends on dealing with the now.

When that reality sets in, a time for an effective perspective is at hand. Such thinking and action can be denied and postponed for a while, but addressing the matter, for better or worse, is inevitable. Thus, a conscious regard for one's own life quality and the interests of others near and dear must animate an effective sense of perspective. 

Few horrors in recent times, perhaps none save the Bush presidency, rival the loss of life and utter devastation that nature inflicted on Haiti earlier this month. It wasn't personal and, despite crazy talk by supernatural demigods like televangelist Pat Robertson, it's unlikely any supernatural being did the deed either because of a 200 year-old grudge or because Haitians did not pray enough or quite as a deity would like or any other violation of rules set our by one or more beings supreme and huge and omni-everything. Earthquakes, like tsunamis, tornados and meteor strikes, are naturally occurring events. All are part of nature, now and in times to come, as has been true for billions of years. It's not personal.

Many people are not so good at perspective in cases like this and other disasters. Take a quite recent event in this country that captured a great deal of public attention, namely, the special election in Massachusetts for the Senate seat vacated by the death of Edward Kennedy. While many factors were in play, as in any election, this vote was seen as a referendum in good part on President Obama and the Democratic Party. Did the voters in the Bay State show wise perspective? Well, I don't know—this is a matter of limitless blogging and bloviating. However, I have my own bit of bloviators/blogger opinion, and it gets to the matter of perspective. It seems so odd to me that voters in that state elected a member of the same party that had been in power for eight years before Mr. Obama came to power a year ago. As one commentator put it, the voters were ready to exhibit a populist rage. But, that rage was expressed IN SUPPORT OF the party that caused their grief. Specifically, it was the Republican Party that "destroyed the economy, redistributed massive amounts of wealth from the middle class to the richest of the rich and the biggest of big businesses, and waged a trillion-dollar war in the wrong country." (Drew Weston, Huffington Post, Jan 20, 2010.)

Of course, this vote is also a form of perspective. However, there is wise perspective and not-so-smart perspective. This and other events, large and small in scope, show that perspective is important for everyone—and therefore we should all seek information, learning, counsel and other forms of education to continually advance our capacities for effective perspective. Even then, as with the vote in Massachusetts, good and kind people will not always agree on the nature of the best perspective on any given matter. But, that subjective factor is no reason to neglect fine-tuning your sense of and skill at such a precious thing. "Perspective skill building" might be a needed addition to the list of talents worth cultivating by everyone who cares enough to make sensible lifestyle choices and, in fact, to go beyond the "sensible" level—especially all who want to strive for great lifestyles via REAL (reason, exuberance and liberty-focused) wellness for ever-enhanced quality of life. 

Be well. Always look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of meaning and purpose. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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