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Happy holidays, despite everything

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 13, 2008

There is no need to sell your dental fillings to have a happy holiday season, as one all-news cable channel suggested some people contemplate.

Sure, these are tough times, but there are many positive things going on all around us that we can focus on, rather than the never-ending gloom and doom scenarios presented by the national news media.

Every day, they must get together to out-despair each other. They add that extra exclamation of chagrin in presenting each story designed to keep your attention and horrify.

There are those annoying people who devour this negativity and feel compelled to repeat each story viewed to everyone they meet.

I say protect your sanity by turning off the all-news cable channels of darkness and concentrate on the good things you can count on, like how it's winter and we live in Florida and not South Dakota.

Tell those who enjoy retelling stories of misery and anguish, especially the heartache of defeat, that you do not have time to listen to their 15-minute monologue. We might all be doomed and everyone's plans may be destined to fail, but at least we live in a place where we can wear flip-flops in December.

Look around you and see who has it worse. Be glad you are not...

...Sitting on a bee.

...In an elevator with a man wearing a blonde wig and it is not Halloween.

...Riding along in your car only to suddenly realize your wristwatch is running backward and you may be in The Twilight Zone.

...Suddenly awoken by a palmetto bug on your nose.

...Back in the third grade, again, with that teacher you hated.

...At your new job only to find your supervisor has Rosie O'Donnell tattooed on one arm and a swastika on the other.

...In Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan or some other hellish Third World nation, wearing an American-flag emblazoned Evel Knievel jumpsuit with no airfare to get back home. Life can usually always be worse. Someone else's daunting problems usually make ours seem less stressful.

So this holiday season, try to think some positive thoughts, before the roof falls in, of course.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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