What, Me Worry?

In season 3 of "Desperate Housewives," Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) has a dream while in the hospital recovering from a chemotherapy session.  She dreams of the day her neighbor, Mary Alice Young, committed suicide.

In the first season, Lynette came home one day, saw her neighbor at her mailbox reading a troubling piece of mail, asked her how she was, the neighbor said "Fine," and like guys usually do, took it at face value and moved on.  She didn't know that later that night she would commit an unthinkable act. And yes, if you're being picky on plot details Lynette's groceries were leaking something which made her move it and get inside rather than take a few minutes to speak with her neighbor.

The dream in Season 3, however, was different. Please watch the following clip and think about the implications (if you feel like it, otherwise, watch it and move on I guess, or don't watch it at all if you don't feel like it) in your life.  What's troubling you?  What worries you?

If you didn't feel like watching, that's cool.  But the message is twofold, and both pieces dovetail well.  Mary Alice tells Lynette that "We can't prevent what we can't predict." In other words, stop worrying so much about everything, even though this is what the media and politicians try to get you to do.

They want you stressed so you'll worry about things beyond your control.  They want you to worry about your body image and think you're not good enough so you'll buy lots of products to help you lose weight through dieting, exercise, or both.

The media wants you to think that the world will end if you personally don't fit into it.  They want you to think that you need to keep up with all of the latest fashions so you'll feel like an outcast if you don't buy the best clothes and the best accessories.  They want you to think you need to have Gatorade or need to eat Subway because athletes do it and if you don't, there's something wrong with you.  It's all a grand distraction.

The second piece of Mary Alice's message is to "Enjoy this beautiful day.  We get so few of them."  Take the time to actually enjoy your life.  Have fun.  Relax.  Enjoy the sunshine.  Focus on the little things that make you happy. Be yourself.  When's the last time you took a moment to look up at the sky and watch birds fly, or airplanes shoot across?  It's probably been a while.

Life is short: enjoy it.  "We can't prevent what we can't predict." None of us knows how tomorrow will turn out.  As Americans right now we have so many things on our plate: war in Afghanistan (still?  oh yes), money troubles, how we look, how we fit in at work, school, and home, and many other things.  But we can't control a lot of it, so there's no need to worry.  In the next blog I'll have some tips on how you can help make yourself feel better and be happier.  At least they work for me most of the time, and I hope perhaps they can work for you.