Day 106: Raindrops and ripples
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 106
— Raindrops and ripples
16-November-1971
(Tue.)
TRANSCRIPT
Was eating dinner at the mensa, when an American
student whispered to his friend while eyeing me,
“That man has the same glasses I do.” I surprised him
when I said, “Yes, they’re common in the States.”
Moral—never whisper in front of strangers.
Later in his conversation, I find out he was a
student and said “Yes, and we’re all on student
budgets.” Sure. Later he said to his friend, “Yes,
we’re going to the Bahamas for Christmas, after
skiing [somewhere]. I thought, “That’s a student
budget. An American student budget.”
REFLECTIONS
1971—Student
budgets. I learn
that my student budget in Austria is not the same as
other American students’ budgets. Did it bother me?
Perhaps a little. If you’re a student and you run
into other students who seem to have more money than
you, just ignore them. Enjoy yourself on whatever
your budget happens to be. There will always be
people with more money than you. After all, money
can’t buy happiness. Well, yes it can, but that’s
another story.
1971 was uneventful. 2007 was a whole other story.
2007—Life
event 2. My last
blog posting was over a week ago. I am now only able
to type just a little. It took me two days to type
today’s blog. There is a reason for this. On the
night of the 15th, I had an encounter with my dog
Beemer. It was my fault. I ended up in the emergency
room and then a bit of a hospital stay. Good
news—there is no permanent damage and I will be fine.
That is a big relief since I rely on the computer for
my living (don’t we all), and since I want to
continue to play keyboards and write my music. I was
very lucky.
[Thanks to my emergency room doctors and my excellent
hand surgeon, Dr. Maser, whose expertise is allowing
my hand to heal quickly and without issues, and to
the many wonderful nurses and medical assistants at
St. Claire’s—Linda, Leslie, Nimfa and many more whose
names I did not write down. Thanks.]
By the way, we love Beemer to no end and will see if
we can correct his behavior. Beemer is a good dog.
Feeling
overwhelmed. In the
hospital, I started to feel overwhelmed about the
many separate events that happened over the last two
weeks or so. In life,
things happen. That’s
life. Most of the time we’re ok and we handle our
many daily tasks very well. At other times, we
struggle. The problem is that each event affects many
things in our lives and there are always multiple
events going on. In the hospital, I came up with a
new and personal way to look at life. Think
metaphor.
Raindrops.
Raindrops.
A short
while ago I mentioned a life event having to do with
my job. Think of that life event as a raindrop
hitting a pond. It creates a splash when it hits the
pond, announcing to you that something happened. A
while ago, it was a job event. My new life event is
another raindrop hitting the smooth surface of the
pond, making its splash. Actually, our lives are
filled with many raindrops hitting the pond all the
time; some small, some big. If the raindrop is
important enough, we call it a
life event. Life
events can be good (birth of a baby, marriage,
acceptance to college, buying a house, landing a
great job), or they can be stressful (accidents,
health-related issues, financial stress, losing a
house).
Ripples.
A life
event is not a single, isolated event that happens
and quickly disappears. It affects many other aspects
of our lives. For example, an accident can affect
work, spouse, kids, family, physical health,
finances, stress, mental health, and so on. After the
initial splash of the raindrop, ripples form, moving
outward from the initial point of origin. As the
ripples move out, they touch other raindrops. The
ripples are the metaphor for how life events can
affect many aspects of our lives.
Special
raindrops. While each
life event could be thought of as having a financial
ripple, a family ripple, health ripple, and so on, I
prefer to consider these as special raindrops in our
lives. Thus, we have a financial raindrop, a spouse
raindrop, a finances raindrop, and so on. These
important raindrops are always on the pond because
they are always part of our lives. My recent life
event raindrop hit the pond and its ripples went out
and touched the raindrops of my spouse, my family, my
dog, my finances, my work, my health, and even my
fish—when your hands are bandaged, you can’t even
open up the fish food can to feed them.
Too
many raindrops. If, all of
a sudden, too many raindrops hit at once, then you
begin to feel overwhelmed. Here are the life and mini
events that happened to me over the last 10 days or
so: (Remember, I am posting this blog in the future.)
• work, potential relocation. (life event)
• winter and other car repairs, $1,600. (mini event)
• important family car repairs. $225. (mini event)
• dog incident. Don’t worry, I’m ok. (life event)
• family car accident. Snowing, not our fault.
Everything is ok. (life event)
Humility and perspective. These were
my and my family’s raindrops that fell all too close
to each other and led to my feeling of being
overwhelmed. Time for a bit of perspective and
humility—often a good thing. Compared to many, many
other people’s troubles, their life events, and the
many problems and issues in today’s world,
my personal events are nothing. Absolutely
nothing. They do
not compare to anything serious at all. Although I
still have to pay my bills, I am very lucky—I did not
lose my job, my car repairs are just money issues,
and both the dog incident and car accident did not
result in long-term serious injury. They do not
compare to the world’s issues of conditions in poor
areas of the world, hunger, malnutrition, disease,
poverty, health, and war. A little humility and
perspective is a good thing.
Gerry’s
advice. I have a
great friend, Gerry, who has always reminded me of
the importance of perspective and of health.
Ultimately, the most important thing in our lives is
our health, not money or other small problems. Gerry
has spent much of his life helping troubled teenagers
and is an amazing person.
Ripples
fade. Here is
the good news. Over time, the ripples of each
raindrop fades. Things will work out. Time heals.
Handling life. Try not to
worry. Move forward, one step at a time. Tackle your
issues one at a time. Take each day, one day at a
time; don’t worry about the future. Do your best.
Seek help, if needed. Hopefully, things will
generally work out. Time heals.
If true tragedy strikes, it is certainly more
difficult to handle. Hopefully, there will be help
for you. Time will heal.
Writing
helps. My
thinking and writing about these events has helped me
to put things in perspective and to lessen my
feelings of being overwhelmed. I still have to pay
the bills (money issues are often the cause of most
stress), but our #1 priority—health—will be fine down
the road.
Raindrops
of the world. To extend
the metaphor, think of yourself as a single raindrop
falling onto a pond. Everyone else you know, family
and friends, are also single raindrops falling on the
pond, each with their own life events that ripple out
and touch you and others. Raindrops within raindrops.
Finally, take a telescopic view scaling upward into
space—moving from person, to house, to street, to
neighborhood, to city, to state, to regions, to
countries, to continents, to the world. We’re all
connected. Our raindrops are connected, their ripples
affecting all of us. We’re a world community.
Our raindrops are falling on the pond of
humanity. In these
troubled times, let’s hope that the pond becomes a
better place for all peoples.
John
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