Behold the Stars

I have three friends who know that the world is full of what one of them calls “ghastly nontragedies.”

They turn everything into funny, immediately. True but funny.

In other words, they rewrite the story as fast as possible. Most depressing encounters contain only the past, not the future. Laughter is the balloon that carries you out of the present.

                             Diane Sawyer

What a phrase: ghastly nontragedies. It reminds me of another quote:

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

                              Mark Twain

I like these quotes because together they remind me of three important things:

1. The need to view our lives objectively. Many of us can turn any negative experience into a catastrophe although most of the “disasters” in our lives aren’t really disasters, but merely obstacles and temporary setbacks.
2. The need to have people in our lives who can keep us balanced — who can share our pain, make us laugh, correct our faulty thinking, and on our worst days, talk us down from the ledge.
3. The need to reframe our problems. Good and bad are judgments, not facts. If we can learn to see things through a different lens, we can often talk ourselves down from the ledge.

Think about those things today. Try to be realistic about your problems, don’t let your emotions overrule your reason. And as for your relationships, don’t try to find a friend. Try to be one.

That’s all.

Make a great day.

By the way…

The first quote comes from When You Need a Lift: But Don’t Want to Eat Chocolate, Pay a Shrink, or Drink a Bottle of Gin, by Joy Behar. According to the cover of the book, “In When You Need a Lift, comedienne Joy Behar and a host of her friends share the simple, silly, profound, and personal things they turn to for comfort when life gets hard. ” There are 88 of these friends – actors, writers, politicians, and other celebrities – and their advice ranges from thinking of others to downing a shot of whiskey (I bet you won’t find that one in a self-help book!). The Mark Twain quote comes from, well, any quotations book or website.