Helplessness

Last week I was informed about a young man, the son of my sister's best friend, who killed his wife and then himself. This young man seemed to have everything to live for; two beautiful children 7 and 5, formally educated wife, six figure income, half million dollar home paid for, MBA from a top college and all college loans paid off. Know one knows what brought it on and we will never know, could we have done something if we had known?                                                     

Help'less.ness* (help'less.ness bewildered; confused; perplexed; He looked at her with a helpless expression on his face.)

I guess we all have felt this way, at one time or another.

Today is no exception with the bombing & shooting in Norway, the fight in Washigton D C over the debt limit, the vigilante type threats against a non conviction in Florida, the disrespect shown to the President of the United States, the drought in the Sudan, the wars we are involved in and on and on.

Most of us continue to carry on dispite these somber disturbances to our sanity.

It's so easy to stop and dwell on these disstressful things and lose touch, each day has a bountiful supply of happiness if we just let it in. All around us or events and happenings which offer beauty, clarity, poetry and even love.

I don't know how many of us think in these terms, are would feel guilty if we did; when the unemployment figure is 10% that means 90% are working. Even if you include the underemployed, are those who have stopped looking, the positive numbers favor the country.

There are some things we can affect and many we cannot, in order to maintain sanity we must give more attention to things we can manage.

The family I mentioned ran across circumstances they couldn't handle as we all do but some handle it because of preparedness. Religion, strong family upbringing, common sense (as many older folks say) and who knows what else.

We all encounter helplessness at some time, we can only do the best we can to handle it to the best of our ability. Sometimes being able to call on the right sanity can help.

*The Random House College Dictionary Revised Edition 1984