Unstoppable Joy!
DISASTER IN THE STOCK MARKET!!!
Todays’ news of financial upheaval gives me an opportunity to deal with a question that is often asked by folks who read Unstoppable Joy! A Happier You in 12 Simple Steps.
That is… How can one maintain a center when the stock market is falling like a rock, when folks are losing jobs and their houses, when all of the experts are projecting a grim future at best and the world just looks crazy?
Even though I don’t watch television I am completely aware of the situations that are developing in the news and that are being discussed ad infinitum by the experts. I listen to just enough to get a general overview of the situation and how it relates to the “big picture”. Then I get back to my center.
How can I be joyous in these times?
Focus on The Big Picture
I start by relating to the big picture.
When I watch all of this high drama going on the stage of media and mass consciousness I do my best to remain a bit detached, like I’m watching a play. All of grinding of teeth, hair-tearing and grandiose posturing, the bellowing and the thundering, reminds me of Shakespeare. Like those plays it is all high drama, vivid characters and seems like every one’s fate and life is depending on the outcome.
The reason I am able to see it as a dramatic play is by focusing on the big picture.
The big picture is that nations and politics are constantly going through change and upheaval. This most likely been true since the first group of cave people tried to agree on something.
What if the Worst Happens?
Even if the worst predictions are true, we are simply facing what many other nations have faced in the last 30 years in the world. Japan, Sweden, Norway, and many other countries have had huge real estate bubbles pop. similar to our situation. In each case it decimated their banking system. They all pulled out of decline and became prosperous afterwards.
Many are comparing this to the Great Depression. The Great Depression was at its worst in about 1932. Less than 10 years from the worst part of the Depression our country was strong enough and vibrant enough to help save the world in World War II, followed by decades of prosperity.
Again it is always important to look at the big picture rather than get wrapped up in what some commentator or politician is bellowing at you at the moment. He or she is simply doing their job by trying desperately to get your attention and your emotions all fired up. That is their job – to entertain and sell products or idealogies, bless them, and they are very good at it.
Mad Max meets Soylent Green and the Terminator!
I’ve had friends call and express worry about a police state on the horizon, no food to eat, no water to drink and two thirds of the people in the world being wiped out. So I know how extreme a lot of the stories that are being passed around sound. Whew… like Mad Max, Soylent Green and the Terminator rolled into one.
I personally don’t believe any of those things will happen.
Human beings are much better than that. We will adjust and we will prosper.
Am I Just a Pollyanna?
Lest you think I am totally “Pollyanna” or an unrealistic fool about this, many great minds agree the future is very bright due to a “wild card”.
That “wild card” is the mindset of the younger generation.
I’m reading a new book by the great pollster Zogby. He doesn’t guess about the future and what folks think – he polls folks and bases his book on what tens of thousands of people are actually saying.
The book is called “The Way We Will Be”.
It’s based on thousands of polls he has taken in the last few years regarding the attitudes of all age groups in America.
What Zogby’s Polls Say…
Zogby’s book is shocking in its uplifting outlook of the future. No doom and gloom here. It is an extremely positive book.
He goes into great detail about how young people have a completely different mindset.
They see the world as one neighborhood. They see the fact that there are dozens of different religions as a beautiful thing. They are networked and have friends in every corner of the planet. These friends of different races and beliefs are their peer group.
When I was young my peer group was a bunch of white Irish Catholics. I’m old enough to have grown up in an area where neighborhoods were made up of primarily one ethnic/religious group.
OK I’m not talking 100 years ago folks. I’m not that old yet. It was the San Fernando Valley in LA in the late 50s and 1960s.
So I grew up in an atmosphere where anyone that was different than us was “strange”. It was easy to build up stereotypes because you never really ran into other ethnic groups in school or at social activities.
I imagine most of our decision makers and captains of industry had a somewhat similar peer group experience to mine. In the 1960s even long distance phone calls were quite rare and expensive – a true luxury. Jet airline travel had just started and was also rare.
Fast forward to 2008…
A New World of Instant Communication and International Empathy
The young people today are living in a totally different world. They are connected through text messaging, social networking sites, video, audio, and every other sort of multimedia imaginable.
It is not unusual for a young person to have a peer group composed of people from Japan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, Great Britain, France, Canada, Indonesia, Italy, and many other countries as well as it here in the US.
Because of this fact, when they hear older people and media drawing stereotypes and claiming that one particular race or religion is less worthy than another, they know there is no truth to this.
These “other races who have strange religions” are their friends. They chat with these people every day. They see them joke and laugh and cry in their videos, just like they do. They share the pain of growth and the insecurity of the teenage mindset, which is universal. These close friends are every color of the rainbow and are Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Christian, and even Wicca and Pagan and other beliefs.
On some of these social media services these international friends chat with each other every 5 to 15 minutes. They follow each other’s lives in minute detail. They chat all day and night with each other about everything from music and philosophy to what stores they shop to what brand of coffee or tea they enjoy.
They Can’t Understand The Vicious Political Differences
These young people have a hard time understanding all of the vicious political differences in the world. They know the world is a tiny place. A huge percentage of them of travel to other countries before they are 16 years old.
Even if a young person hasn’t been out of the USA they have many friends who have traveled and come back and tell them the truth about other countries and other people.
That truth is people all over the world are very similar to you. We all want to be happy and we all want to have the freedom to make our own choices. We all love children and we all want to make the world a better place for them. We all want the right to worship the Creator in the way that resonates with our inner truth. We all want clean water, clean air and opportunities to learn new skills and better ourselves.
Unfortunately politicians, war profiteers and hate mongers get in the way of this truth. But it won’t keep working much longer. Those who want to continue hate and intolerance use ignorance to sway minds. This “ignorance is truth” approach can work on fairly well on folks who are raised, as I was, isolated from other races and beliefs.
The Lie That We Are Different
Luckily this is “ignorance” the young are losing. The lie that somehow we are all different and out to get each other has stopped having much effect on many of them.
They see the truth. They know their international peer group of friends personally. They chat every day. So these young minds trust their peer group way more than strangers with suspect motives such as talking heads on TV and radio.
These young people are the future. We are so lucky for that.
Zogby’s polls show that they are determined to change this world into a better place. They are willing to do the work that is necessary.
They aren’t interested in accumulating a bunch of material possessions to define who they are. They are not going to be defined by status. They aren’t interested in dictating that others believe in the same things they believe in. They desire to share and be part of a world community.
His polls show that they not only want to contribute to the world, they are already rolling up their sleaves and getting to work on it. They use less resources. They embrace new energy technologies. They want to clean up the air and they want to fix the climate.
A Dinosaur Looking Forward
They have my awe, admiration and respect. At 57 I am a dinosaur compared to the “32 and under” group Zogby focuses on. But this dinosaur feels full of joy and gratitude as he looks to the future and sees it in the sparking bright eyes of the enthusiastic young people.
I don’t see the future in the panic stricken eyes, mindless jabbering and finger pointing of politicians and Wall Street bankers. There I see dinosaurs who, unlike this one, refuse to admit they are not the future. I gaze amazed as they continue fighting over how to extend the “Decades of the Dinosaurs” a while longer as they sink in the tar pits of inevitable change.
So now you know the future I see. A beautiful future. A future I speak of on the very last page of Unstoppable Joy!
Exciting Drama and Scary Monsters
Like us all I see the frightening momentary drama that is going on now. Unlike most I realize that it is just a tiny part of the big picture. Sure I find it exciting, just like I find a horror movie exciting.
I don’t worry about the monster jumping out and eating me after the movie is done. And I don’t worry about the monster of the “sky is falling” drama in front of us destroying my joy and peace. My joy and peace is as solid as the rock of Gibraltar and these stormy seas can pound it all they like. I am master and commander of my mind, no one else.
I will do my part in this drama by writing about and visualizing this wonderful new world that the young people are going to bring to us.
Rough Times Ahead?
Perhaps I won’t be here to live in this wonderful world I see shining bright in my mind. Perhaps there will be very rough times before it comes. No matter.
I’m still going to focus my energy and remaining time bringing as much joy to the world as I can. According to Zogby, Joy and personal fulfillment are a big part of what the young seek and want to bring into our world.
Whether I’m around to see this brave new world or not, I am gonna do my part. I’ll do what I can to help these young people create the joyous, embracing, multi cultured new World they are ushering in.
They know it’s coming. I know it’s coming.
Now it’s your turn.
What future do you want to believe in and help create?
A joyous new world of tolerance, support, generosity and forgiveness?
A dark new world of scarcity and desperation?
We get to choose the future together. What we see in our collective mind is what will transpire. Our minds control the creative energy of the constantly expanding universe.
So decide right now. Tomorrow won’t wait.
You are master and commander of your own mind.
What destination will you choose as you chart the course for the mighty ship of your hopes, dreams and imagination? To a sunny tropical paradise full of love and laughter or to stormy and dreary Cape Fear?
Always remember how powerful your thoughts are before you decide which direction you want to sail that ship. Then go forward with that unstoppable power of belief filling your sails and boldly travel across the seas of uncertainty to the future. A future you desire for yourself and for the generations to come.
Joy, Abundance and all the blessings in the world
Ed Osworth
The Joy Professor
Unstoppablejoy.com
