How often are we bombarded with warning signs that tell us the world is a dangerous place? Frequently, even the weather report is made to sound ominous and foreboding. We are in a constant state of storm warnings that have turned the cleansing rain of a thunderstorm into a deluge of fear.
What are the cumulative effects of the onslaught of continuous stress on us as people? I can only imagine the constant flow of adrenaline we are exposed to which leads us to states of hypersensitivity or numbness. Karen Horney, a contemporary of Freud, defined anxiety as a "feeling of being lost and alone in a potentially hostile environment." We must be experiencing states of super anxiety since we are exposed to messages that tell us we are in a constantly hostile environment. I can feel the rush of adrenaline and the pressure building within me and then I force myself to pull back from the brink recognizing that what I am reacting to is the myopic characterizations that are being placed before me.

"If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, it energizes us to act, and raises at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
I open my eyes more fully and I can see the resilience of the people of Haiti following the devastation caused by an earthquake. I can see the coming together of others with their outpouring of help. I can see courage, strength, generosity, hope. While the world may have its dangers I recognize that we as human beings have the competence to cope with them and the ability to fashion the world as we would like it. So in spite of the economy, weather, violence, political corruption, and the empty glass there is hope.
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