|
I am basically a writer. That means, among other things,
that I spend a lot of time at the computer either writing or preparing to
do so by reading and researching. That also means that much of the world at
times goes by me so that things happen or ideas develop in society that I
do not notice. Ideas circulate but pass me by. That’s one of the reasons I
do watch the news and read newspapers, though I am aware that the news is
often skewed, slanted and selective.
One of the ideas that has been circulating the past day or
so—and, apparently, not a new one—is that of Blue Monday. I heard of it the first time on TV this
week. When I asked Fran, my wife, what that was, she was surprised I had
not heard of it. Such surprise on her part is not the first time. At any
rate, as I listened to her explanation and to the TV clip about it, I
shrugged my shoulder. What kind of nonsense is that? Something that people talk each other
into? Not only had I never heard of
it, I had never experienced it either. If this is a real thing, should I
not have experienced it at least once or twice? Since I haven’t, it must indeed be
something people talk each other into. If you don’t listen and have not
heard of it, it won’t happen to you, for you won't imagine it.
Well, guess what. Our friend Jim Dennison wrote that,
according to other psychologists, there is no such thing as Blue Monday.
This is what he writes:
A psychologist named Cliff Arnall christened the third Monday in January as
"Blue Monday." According to him, the weather, debt from the
holidays, and broken New Year's resolutions combined to make yesterday
"the most depressing day of the year." Except that it wasn't.
Psychologists say the formula Arnall used has been "effectively
debunked" and tell us that "there is no such thing as the most
depressing day of the year."
Well, at least I did not waste my time worrying about
whether I was afflicted by it or not. It ain’t there. It’s a hoax, though Arnall
probably did not mean it as such.
But as wife Fran and I talked about it, she suggested that a
more likely candidate for being blue would be December 23 or thereabouts—the
shortest day of the year, the winder equinox. My reaction to that was that that might be the
least blue of all days, since from there on things are looking up: the days
are going to get longer; the darkness is receding. That’s at least true for
the northern hemisphere. The farther north you go, the greater the
difference between the hours of light and darkness. Down south, of course,
it’s the other way around.
Allow me a bit of pop psychology. My own experience is that
attitudes like “Blue Monday,” when you generalize them, to a large degree
depend on at least three factors in your life. One is your personality, your native or
inherent psychological makeup. If negative thinking comes naturally to you,
if your cup is always half empty, then you are probably more prone to that
blue stuff. Since I am blessed with a positive personality, things like
weather do not particularly bother me one way or another, though I admit
that long periods of high summer temps can sometimes tire me out, while an extended winter into spring can annoy me. That’s probably
a retirement reaction to being in the tropics for 30 years. Been there,
done that; don’t need any more of that stuff.
But I do have some friends who are prone to “seasonal
disorder” or something like that. And they do genuinely suffer apparently
from things like “Blue Monday,” except that for them it’s more like an
extended blue cloudy period or perhaps an even longer “blue winter.” Our
rainy BC climate seems to lend itself to that, though people can also have
it in sunny California. So, that’s a native, inherent proclivity that can
turn things blue for you. I thank God I’m spared that.
If you do have that makeup—and this is my second point--,
when circumstances in your life turn against you like unemployment or your
house goes into default, then that blue thing can make it worse for you.
You don’t have that half-full cup to counter or resist it. You slide into
it more readily and before long, there you are, in a deep depression-like experience.
It can lead you into a deep valley that can even ruin a marriage. Because
of my personality, I don’t always understand that kind of experience and am
sometimes impatient with it. That’s a downside of being inclined towards a
more positive and more cheerful disposition.
The third factor in all this is your faith—or lack of it. I
am the happy possessor of a positive faith in God. That cup simile comes from the Bible:
Psalm 23:5, to be exact. Let me give you this passage from two different
translations, the first a more formal one, the second more conversational.
The New International Version (NIV) puts it this way:
Even though I walk
through
the darkest valley,[a]
I
will fear no evil,
for
you are with me;
your
rod and your staff,
they
comfort me.
5 You
prepare a table before
me
in
the presence of my enemies.
You
anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness
and love will
follow me
all
the days of my life,
and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
The Message, a more contemporary and popular translation, has
it this way:
Even when the way
goes through
Death
Valley,
I’m
not afraid
when
you walk at my side.
Your
trusty shepherd’s crook
makes
me feel secure.
5 You
serve me a six-course dinner
right
in front of my enemies.
You
revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your
beauty and love chase after me
every
day of my life.
I’m
back home in the house of God
for
the rest of my life.
I have had my times of worry but hindsight usually convinces
me that it coincided with a time of letting go of God, not quite trusting
Him. And when this third element was missing, the other two were not enough
of a barrier to resist the negativity that entered my life. For me, all
three need to be in place and in sync. That’s when it all disappears. I
love that Psalm.
Please do not misunderstand.
I am not saying or
suggesting that if you tend to be a negative person or if you have a hard
time coping with downturns in your circumstances, you must be short of
Christian faith or of faith in general. Our lives do not flow according to
strict formulas. I have just told
you my personal experiences; yours may be very different. But I did want to share this with you in
response to Jim’s above.
thing significant to follow
Jesus?
|
No comments:
Post a Comment