What Me Worry?  The MAD Magazine Alfred E. Neuman Philosophy  of Life and it’s effect on Osteo or Rheumatoid Arthritis

Both Osteo and Rheumatoid Arthritis are painful and degenerative and should be treated by a Doctor, but there is at least one home remedy that will help to reduce and relieve pain, and it will not cost you a dime….

Of how many persons can it truthfully be said they never worry?  How many are truly perfectly happy, contented, serene? It would be interesting if each of my readers were to recall his acquaintances and friends, think over their condition in this regard, and then report to me the result. What a budget of worried persons I should have to catalog, and alas, I am afraid, how few of the serene would there be named. When John Burroughs wrote his immortal poem, Waiting, he struck a deeper note than he dreamed of, and the reason it made so tremendous an impression upon the English-speaking world was that it was a new note to them.  It opened up a vision they had not before contemplated. Let me quote it here in full:

Serene I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, or tide or sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me,
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it has sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height,
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high
Can keep my own away from me.

I have been wonderfully struck by the fact that in studying the Upanishads, and other sacred books of the East, there is practically no reference to the kind of worry that is the bane and curse of our modern world. Indeed there is no word in many ancient languages to express our idea of fretful worry. Worry is almost purely a modern product, the outgrowth of progress and materialism, our eager striving after place and position, power and wealth, our determination to be housed, clothed, transported, jeweled and entertained as well as our neighbors… and a little better if possible–i.e. an untempered lust for material goods!

In fact, it comes from our failure to know that life is spiritual not material; that all these outward things are the mere “passing show,” the tinsel, the gee-gaws, the tissue-paper, the flash and dazzle, the mock heroes and heroines of stage and screen, rather than the real settings of the real life of real men and women. Think about it…. What does the inventor, who knows that their invention will help humanity truly care about the newest entertainment craze, or the latest style in clothing or automobiles or high-tech gagetry; what does the woman whose heart and brain are completely engaged in relieving suffering or living a life emotionally secure really care if she is not familiar with or bedazzled in the latest runway fashions? Life is real, life is earnest, and this does not mean unduly solemn and somber–but that it deals with realities rather than the false worlds so glamorously and imaginatively presented in the media and in the doings of iconic celebrities.

That worry is a curse no intelligent observer of life will deny. It has hindered millions from progressing, and never benefited a soul. It occupies the mind with that which is injurious and thus keeps out the things that might benefit and bless. It is an active and real manifestation of the fable of the man who placed the frozen asp
in his bosom. As he warmed it back to life the reptile turned and fatally bit his benefactor. Worry is as a dangerous, injurious book, the reading of which not only takes up the time that might have been spent in reading an instructive missive or participating in an activity of value; but, at the same time, poisons the mind of the reader, corrupts his soul with disturbingly evil images, and sets his feet on the pathway to destruction.

Why is it that creatures endowed with reason distress themselves and everyone around them by worrying? It might seem reasonable for the wild creatures of the wood–animals without reason–to worry as to how they should secure their food, and live safely with wilder animals and men seeking their blood and hunting them;
but the fact that men and women, endued with the power of thought, capable of seeing the why and wherefore of things, should worry, is one of the strange and peculiar evidences that our so-called civilization is not all that it ought to be. The spiritual hermit of the simple home, the desert, forest, or canyon seldom, if ever, worries. He–or she–is far too great a natural philosopher to be engaged in so foolish and unnecessary a business. He has a better practical system of life than has his more sophisticated brethren who worries, for he says: Change what can be changed; bear the unchangeable without a murmur. With this philosophy he braves the wind and the rain, the sand, and the storm, the extremes of heat and cold, the plethora of a good harvest or the famine of a drought. If he complains it is within himself; and if he whines and whimpers no one ever hears him. His face may become a little more stern under the higher pressure; he may tighten his waist belt a hole or two to stifle the complaints of his empty stomach, but his voice loses no note of its cheeriness and his smile none of its sweet serenity.

Once you have experienced pain and suffering of Osteoarthritis or Rheumatoid Arthritis or any other degenerative disease in your everyday life, worrying about trivial things becomes just as hopelessly trivial as the things which you previously worried.  Worry is a demon that will only increase your pain and debilitation.  Refusing to allow worry to take over your life is one trick of self-medication which you can safely provide for yourself once you have been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis or Rheumatoid Arthritis.  Yes, of course, that is easier said that done; but the fact of the matter is…worrying will only make things worse, and a good book, or movie, or some other mentally stimulating entertainment will keep you from concentrating on the pain, and thereby make the pain itself more bearable.  You may not be able to wish away your Osteo or Rhematoid Arthritis but you can subject it to a healthy dose of Mind Over Matter.  That decision my friend, is all up to you.

Smiles and Good Health,

Teresa Thomas Bohannon

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm and is filed under rheumatoid arthritis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.