Worry

I've been doing a lot of worrying lately.  Spike and I are house hunting and I'm worried that we'll never find one we like.  My colleague and best friend in the world (emphasis on the latter, not the former) resigned and so I've been worrying a lot about work.  I constantly also worry about other, more general things like the safety and health of my friends and family.  These are the things that keep me up at night.

When I'm stressing about things, I try to remember my mother singing "Everything's Alright" from Jesus Christ Superstar to me at bedtime.  That helps soothe my mind.  I also try to think of one of her favorite expressions, "Unless it's fatal, it's no big deal."  And lately, Spike's assertion that "everything besides (him) is just cream cheese" has helped ease my mind.  But something my sister sent me has also helped me to put things in perspective.

A letter F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to his 11-year-old daughter in 1933 included the following list:

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

With dearest love,

Daddy