Trouble: Avoid It or Dip In?

Part of my psychic ability is knowledge of trouble before it happens. That keeps me a bit protected and safe, but I’ve had my share of bad luck. Sad but true, I knew it was coming. Instead of adapting, I’d forget I was forewarned and then have to face it like a big wave, with a last-minute choice to swim under it or flip over it.

Every decade a horrible thing has happened that I thought I might not live through. But here sits a happy old lady, a cockeyed optimist. That’s from South Pacific, my first Broadway show, and my daughter took me. But let me get back to trouble. When I hear the word, I think of River City and the Music Man. I planned to buy a Broadway ticket for the revival but it’s $600 and crowded, so I’ll go to Vermont instead. Anyway, Music Man is a holdover from my youth, so maybe it should stay there.

Conflict is present everywhere. In writing classes, I learned the necessity of it. Every story, every joke, and most days of our lives contain conflict and resolution. How we face the resolution part is what divides the optimists and the pessimists.

Someone asked me again last week, do you predict bad things? I tell them it’s a matter of whether they want to know everything. I also explain that it’s like voice lessons. I don’t tell my students that they’ll never be as successful as Adele or Justin Bieber, but I do lay out the improvement strides that will occur.

When bad things happen, if you can’t swim under or jump over the problem, get to the other side with optimism. It’s good for your cells.