Life is Good

We just finished another major election cycle. Part of the country is jubilant, part is grieving, and some small part are probably oblivious.

If you’re jubilant, be kind. Remember how you felt 4 years ago, and check where you are now. Most of your worst fears didn’t materialize. If you’re grieving, process that emotion effectively and try to understand that most of your worst fears won’t materialize. If you’re oblivious, I wanna be you when I grow up.

We, as a people, are so much more than what we believe politically. I know our lives are shaped by politics, probably far more than we understand. But I’m reminded of a book I was required to read in college, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. A psychologist and holocaust survivor, Frankl wrote about how he survived adversity we can barely conceive of. What struck me most about his story was a quote I’ve never forgotten. He said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Life is good. No one is imminently going to be carried off to a concentration camp in America. Choose your attitude about everything you encounter. How you react every day can lift rather than destroy your mood and the mood of people around you.