It has been a long time since William Safire, a gifted practioner of the use of words, crafted the phrase, "nattering nabobs of negativism" and inserted it into a speech by then vice president, Spiro Agnew. The phrase certainly was more lasting in the popular imagination than the one who used it in a speech.
This is not going to be a negative blog even though there is so much in our world at the present time that is negative. The horrific planting of explosives in the last two days is another sign that we live in a dangerous world. The coarseness of the national dialog. The lack of genuine role models for children to be found in our elected officials of both political parties. A world where leaders seek the simplest of solutions for the most complex of problems. The instant vilification of those who disagree with someone is just awful. The profound problems in the Church are so sad (even though some problems in context are being addressed and changed in major positive ways).
Yesterday, I had to spend much of the day dealing with "muck." Yuck. Bad stuff. I did feel for a time that I had just lost my bearings and the possibility of hope or joy. So I tried to follow the most effective therapeutic tool that I had. It only worked partially, but, heck, I'll take partial solutions to "muck" any day, rather than no solutions to "muck."
Here is my solution. I went on the internet and searched for photographs of golden retrievers laughing. I spent fifteen minutes fiercely searching hundreds of photos. I found a gentle puppy. I needed this: Here is the winner:
Did I suddenly become happy? Not completely. But I smiled. I felt like continuing to work on things that were not happy things, but I could handle them more easily. Try it if you're really down and seem overwhelmed. If you don't like goldens (there is clearly something wrong with you unless you're allergic), then look for kittens playing. This is why God gave us pets. What a treasure.
TODAY'S GRATITUDE - My two golden retrievers, now happily in heaven - but permanently in my mind as angels with four paws.