Friday, November 30, 2012

Doom and gloom

Doom and gloom.  Woe is me. The sky is falling! Things are sooooooooo bad they cannot be fixed. It's an attitudinal thing. It's all around us and if you choose to buy into it in any given circumstance you'll pay a price. That price obviously has a direct correlation to the specific incident/circumstance involved.

Doom and gloom opens the floodgates for great comebacks and great leaders. History is full of them in every endeavor imaginable. Sports, politics, individuals.  People not giving in to doom and gloom and reaching deep inside to "win" the battle at hand. 

Sports are rife with great comebacks. Baseball has many including Bobby Thomson's  walk-off home run in 1951 - the classic "shot heard round the world"


More recently the current world champs from San Francisco had 2 amazing comebacks in consecutive playoff series to even reach the World Series which they promptly swept.

Life presents us with challenges on a daily basis.  Most of us have been behind the eight ball at some point on our lives.  Get behind on the bills - worry about making ends meet.  Just providing the basics becomes a challenge - shelter and food.  But somehow we muddle through.  Some believe it's God's will.  Others simply work hard to fix things. They don't buy in to the notion that the situation cannot be fixed - they simply press on until it is.  Again - it's an attitudinal thing. Some folks simply don't  have a glass - others work at keeping that proverbial glass full. The latter provide the rest of us with examples - they are leaders of a sort even though they may not see themselves that way.

Individuals have overcome great difficulties - think Helen Keller, Thomas Edison, that distant cousin that overcame drug addiction.  Heroes all because they did not give in to d&g.

These days there is doom and gloom here and in India to name 2 countries when it comes to politics.  Corruption is rampant in many levels of government. Here there is a great divide between the right and left - make that the extreme right and left. Both sides claim the end is near and our great country is doomed thanks to the other guy.  India has so many parties just keeping track of it all is confusing - and I have a degree in political science for crying out loud.  But I suspect a leader or leaders will emerge in both countries to find a resolution.  

Religion is a great contributor to d&g. Here in Texas a pastor at a megachurch has declared Obama's re-election signals end times. I suspect if he wasn't half black he might think differently but that's the subject for another blog.  Seems every Tom, Dick and Harry reads some tragic current event into something from Revelations.  Again. They keep trying. And then there were those pesky Mayans.  They gave real specifics to their d&g.  We'll know soon enough if they were correct.  

The reigning champions of d&g have to be the global warming crowd. There's "real" science to back both sides of the argument.  Can it be that this time the sky really is falling?  Sigh.  It's all so confusing - but it behooves us to solve this one  That is  certainty.


So thanks Padmum - for this enlightening start to our Friday. Wonder what the others have to say? Check out Anu, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, ocdwriter, Padmum, PaulRamana The Old Fossil and Will.  

7 comments:

  1. We are on the same playing field here, brush down the dust and get on wit life.

    As a late friend of mine used to say: Don't tell the world your troubles. One half don't want to know, and the other half are glad that you and not they have them!

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  2. "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."

    ~ Haruki Murakami

    That Bobby Thomson's walk-off home run in 1951 - the classic "shot heard round the world" is a sight worth seeing over and over again. Reminds me of some of the scenes that we see on Cricket fields all over the world.

    And as usual you have chosen a wonderful song too!

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  3. I think you are right on the mark. Attitude is the whole game. That and lack of cowardice.

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  4. Good footage, a not too bad Stones song and an encouraging message - three in one - that's a result.

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  5. You have made some good points. I think sometimes preachers use doom and gloom to scare people in to following them. I think those who spread doom and gloom about the environment do it to gain political control. I try to follow my own instincts on both ends. :)

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  6. A perfect example of Doom and Gloom in my opinion is Fox News. Talk about the sky is falling! Then there is Rush Limbaugh whose commentaries could make any sunny day turn to a thuhder storm.

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  7. Maria the ame can be said of MSNBC - the extremes use D&G To frighten people. Always have and always will. What's interesting i out attitudes towards the messages in these PC times. Things were as bad in John Adams' times - but there was no PC police around to parse every sentence and try and dig out hiddem meanings or agendas.

    D - I'm with you. I suspect because of your LDS position and my rejection of those we are on different sides of the equation often but thats what makes things interesting.

    Fos I never considered the lack of cowardice in the equation. Good point.

    Rummy - only Muranami I know is Mashi Muranami - a former pitcher foir the SF giants decades ago :)

    GM - we seem to find significant common ground in many things. Must be those Irish genes - lol

    Paul - thanks.

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