| The world is going downhill faster than an Olympic | | | | threatening face, why not paint that face with smiles |
| skier. Terrorists lurk around every corner. Climate | | | | to make it less threatening. Let's face it, if I smile at |
| change will soon melt the tundra and turn Iowa into a | | | | you, you'll smile back. The more I smile, the more |
| desert. Frankenstein foods are flooding the market, | | | | people will smile at me. The more you smile, the |
| cleverly masquerading as innocent potatoes and | | | | more people will smile at you. If everybody follows |
| beets. | | | | my advice, at least dentists will be too busy to fear |
| And everybody is planning a war. | | | | world events. |
| Sadam wants to unleash unspeakable biological evils. | | | | 3. Learn a new skill. Imagine the sense of |
| George Bush II wants to unleash unimaginable military | | | | accomplishment and the power of mastering a new |
| might. Germany and France want to just unleash. | | | | skill. Like mesquite cooking. Like whittling. Like |
| North Korea ... need I say more? India and Pakistan | | | | pterodactyl breeding. Oh well, two out of three. And |
| want to run a nuclear relay race, and worst of all we | | | | if you learn that skill in a classroom setting, full of |
| won't even know who the good guys and bad guys | | | | other energized new-skill-masterers, you get the |
| are supposed to be. And I know why my Israeli | | | | bonus of seeing that positive face of the world, |
| friend moved back to New Jersey. | | | | complete with smiles and busy dentists. |
| Just when we thought it was safe to sit back and | | | | 4. Study history. Bad things happen. Good things |
| take comfort in knowing exactly how bad things are, | | | | happen. That's history. Today will one day be history |
| some fool has to come up with five tips to keep our | | | | that somebody reads about. So don't sweat it. |
| spirits up in uncertain times. And that fool is me. So | | | | (Editor's note: If nobody is left to read about it, |
| here are the tips: | | | | scratch this tip.) |
| | | | 5. Volunteer. One of the scariest things about the |
| 1. Count your blessings. We have so much to be | | | | world today is not just that it seems to be going |
| grateful for. Iraq's dime store missiles cannot hit | | | | downhill, but that we feel powerless to stop it. |
| anywhere too important (defined more specifically as | | | | Worse still, politicians and diplomats are in charge. But |
| "where I live"). Then, of course, there is all the | | | | we CAN take control and send the world uphill right in |
| "stuff" we have, like the flush toilet (I would not | | | | our own neighborhood. We can help the local animal |
| want to have lived 500 years ago!) and the remote | | | | shelter. We can work at the food bank. (That's my |
| control. We can be grateful for all the variety, such | | | | personal favorite, and NO you do NOT get free |
| as 32 flavors of ice cream on every corner and at | | | | samples.) We can help little old ladies across the |
| least a dozen flavors of tooth floss. We can count | | | | street. We can make a difference right in our own |
| our education, our knowledge and our opportunities. | | | | communities where the politicians and diplomats won't |
| And we have soooo much more freedom than our | | | | interrupt. |
| ancestors. Geez, with all these blessings to count, it | | | | Sorry about those five tips. If you wish to ignore |
| gets hard to enjoy living in terror of the big, bad | | | | them and return to the regularly-scheduled |
| world. | | | | misery-wallowing, please go ahead. After all, in |
| 2. Smile at a stranger. If the world shows us a | | | | wartime nobody really wants to be happy, do they? |