Seems like lately I wake up, go downstairs, turn on the TV and await whatever catastrophe or crisis has happened overnight or is pending. It’s kind of a bummer to start the day off this way. I could just turn the TV off and imagine that all is well in the world, but I figure that, realistically, before the day is over, someone will tell me it isn’t. So I thought I’d just try to change my attitude a bit. I did a little reading on the Internet and came across something that seems to have helped put things into a better perspective for me.
In 1857 an editorial appeared in the Boston Globe bemoaning the sad conditions of the nation. The editorial states, “Not in the lifetime of most men has there been so much grave and deep apprehension. Never has the future seemed so dismal.”
I suspect that many of the readers of that editorial agreed with it. Back in 1857, it was looking more and more like a Civil War was inevitable and the future did seem bleak and unpredictable. It is our natural tendency to focus on the negative aspects of situations and imagine them as only getting worse.
Each generation thinks that their times are the most difficult the world has ever seen. We characterize our yesterdays affectionally as “the good ole days.” Because the future often causes us to fear the worst, we seek consolation in the past. Imagine how many “good ole days” have taken place since 1857. Looking back, the nation survived the Civil War (and World War I, World War II, Vietnam, 9/11, and countless other catastrophic events.)
Once again, today we are in the midst of a number of situations seemingly without any apparent solution. But the future has a way of bringing pleasant surprises.
I saw a sign once that said, “These are the good old days.” Our tendency is to think that some other time or place was, or will be, better than today. All days can’t be good or great, but all days aren’t bad — most probably aren’t as bad as we think. There’s a song in the play Annie that goes something like, “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow… The sun will come out tomorrow.”
So no matter how dark and depressing things seem, we’ll get through them and the sun will come out…
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