For the Worried

Odds are a great many of the things on your list of worries will never happen.

The drunk driver won't drive through your office, the airliner won't go down, in your neighborhood, that extra slice of steak won't cause a heart attack, and the stray dog across the street isn't rabid.

Your boss isn't thinking of ways to fire you (because he or she isn't thinking about you at all), the neighbors are too busy with their own worries to notice your unwashed car, your team can survive if you take a vacation, and your real friends won't abandon you if you become a success.

That can of soda won't kill you nor will an occasional cigar and you can probably bicycle around the block without a helmet and not seriously risk a lifetime injury. The lake isn't packed with toxic waste nor is it likely that someone released a giant alligator into the shallows.

That small town is not inhabited by Satanists and the camp ground attendant isn't Charles Manson. Your civil rights have not disappeared, a depression is not coming next month, and most of us have faced a lot worse in life than expensive gasoline.

Your childhood was probably standard on the weirdness scale, your career is much healthier than you think, there are more people who respect you than you can ever imagine, and you opened this post without getting a virus.

Relax. It's life. Messy. Illogical. Unfair. Even cruel.

And if you look carefully enough: fun, noble, decent, generous.