I am not visibly different from many others, here.
I am also not a revealable undocumented immigrant hiree (although “documented American” is oddly enough a detainable cousin to that, now), nor –even worse– am I an exhausted Zelenskyy or living in Ukraine (Gaza/Sudan/No. Korea, etc..) My freak-out level, thus, is titrated by such sheer luck as all the above.
More importantly, I am also a believer in a God Who can transform the cold tiny heart of even the most miserable perverted power-hungry dictator/wannabe anywhere at any time. And those of his followers.
Bottom line: Our human lives are composed of peaks and valleys. They always were. There is a Psalm about that! One peak was JFK. (O, for another even half that *tall* someday.)
However, also this: Nuclear (attack) codes have been (and are) in worse hands — and we here still have a military (and others) who swear allegiance to the whole Constitution, not to just one tiny naked emporer molecule of it.
Telly Monster (a Sesame Street character who mostly worries) never reaches THE worst case scenario in his, “but what if I do that and ____ happens?… And what if…”
I didn’t have to be related to a Telly Monster to be beaten down by all the gloom, but certainly the “Monster” part seems as accurate as the “Telly” part (which for me is not short for “television” but speaks more to the neverendingly tell-y dreads).
Yes, I literally researched Telly to make sure I’m being accurate, here. Little did I expect to realize that a fuzzy fictional character hand-puppet has a greater write-up of his life than I’ll ever be Googled for!
I tell my familial Telly to count his blessings and to trust in some humankind, but to trust God more. I’ve seen other Tellys in these recent years (more and more) and would tell them the same. (And “Do what you can with what you have at this time.”)
Mark Twain put much about worrying into perspective:
“Some of the worst things in my life never happened.”
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❤️
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Under the mask.. 