Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

I like to watch Dylan Rattigan for a few minutes every day – especially the first ten minutes or so.  Then he has to go and have someone like Christa Freeland on, the editor of The Financial Times, who is the incarnation of every Sodality of Mary President at my Catholic Girls high school in the 50’s – except her religion is money.  The Sodality President was the bestest ever girl, the crowning achievement of her class, never a hair out of place and smart too – a real talker –  and God how the nuns loved her.  

Recently, he had Dr. Deepak Chopra on.  Granted I tuned in a little late in the segment – but the good doctor told him (and us by extension) that our problem is we always have to be right.  After all, he says, you aren’t always right.  But mostly Dylan is right when he talks about the “banksters.”      

Wait a minute – you mean the reason we here are generally in an agitated state about our country is because we wrongly think we are right.  We are therefore unreasonable in our beliefs because there are other opinions out there and maybe those are the right opinions.  The Afghan War, for instance – our problem is that we think it is a horror imposed on another country and which is partially responsible for our continuing slide into the third world category.  As well, those Afghans don’t appreciate our good intentions and hate us – even the corrupt leadership hates us.  But there we are spending enormous amounts of money and killing them and our own.  What fools we are!  Be happy – look at the other guy’s point of view – maybe that other guy is right.  Besides, I’ve heard about “siege” lately in that war.  So that should solve everything – as it did in Iraq.

Dr. Chopra delivers these dicta in sonorous, heavy tones with a serious, soulful look into the camera – the concerned physician – with a slight smile – signaling he is passing out gems for our bling consumption of the news and telling us what’s best for our mental and physical health.  Concerned for all of us out here who are angry and scared and noisy and rude.  You are not always right, nor do you have to be.  It is too much of a burden.

Have you ever noticed that dancers who twirl across the floor – on point especially – do not get dizzy.  Why is that?  Well, you pick a spot on the wall you are twirling toward and your head turns first always with eyes on that spot – then your body follows.  You won’t get dizzy – it works!  It’s called spotting.  And it’s what all of us have to do when we venture into the labrynth of what passes for news from our well-paid, good looking, mostly calm media.  Well, wouldn’t you be calm out there if you made a good salary and had a really good smile and never, I repeat never – a sliver of doubt about the good sense and smarts you are passing along to the zombies in front of the screen.  And they needn’t worry about work ’cause there are about 25 who flit across the screen constantly – there will always be work for a smooth purveyor of the latest propaganda.  

I admit as I age I don’t know as much as I did in my 30s or 40s when I was oh so smart.  But I do know I have a pretty good scorecard when it comes to the past 30 years or so when I really started paying attention to politics and issues that relate to the lives of American citizens and citizens of the world.  And though you wouldn’t know it – because people like Karl Rove continue to be touted even as his failed party in the prior administration is spread out on the viewing table for any citizen who cares to dissect and look at the entrails of that disaster is ignored by the smiling wealthy gem merchants – we actually get it.  Yes, we do.

Here is my well thought out, my best thinking, my slow and deliberate mental process with a lightening creative slash as well:

Dr. Chopra, bite me!