Everyday. So much in the news. I’ll tell you. Sometimes it makes your head spin. Like Linda Blair in the Exorcist.
I have considered writing different versions of Kid Wednesday. Keeping this one….. called… Kid Wednesday “There is something seriously wrong with that girl.”
But I have thought of adding Kid Wednesday “Politics” or Kid Wednesday “World Events” or others. Regardless, tonight, I am interested in a couple of headlines in the “other” news.
The first directly relates to me. And it is bright and shining news. Neurotic people live longer.
Yes. It is true. There has been a new study. In the UK. They looked at more than a half a million people…. with the trait of neuroticism as the topic of study. AND, they found that if you are a little nuts…. it may reduce the risk of death for those in fair or poor health.
This was just published in Psychological Science. They have figured out that attributes such as “worry” and “feelings of vulnerability” were directly associated with lower mortality.
I am going to live to be 138 years old by these standards.
Mr. Webster has a definition for neurotic. It doesn’t sound so snappy…. but here it goes. A “mental and emotional disorder that affects part of the personality” and is accompanied by a “distorted perception of reality”.
Guilty. As charged. I’ve been a worrier since I was a little kid. I used to twirl my hair, at the crown of my head. Almost obsessively. Little kid with big worries. It started early. Heck, I was nervous about coming out of the birth canal. I had no idea how my big Tweety Bird Head was going to get through that little opening of light at the end of the tunnel.
It went on from there. I worried that my homework wasn’t perfect enough. I fretted about playing ball and getting pregame jitters so bad I could barely stand it. I was fearful of “running out” of things. Like Peanut Butter.
And my biggest distress comes from wondering what others “think” about things / situations / conversations and on.
The study found that moody neurotics ‘are more likely to be creative geniuses’ among other things. Apparently, we are more vigilant about our health. But they followed these people all the way to death, and the ones who were neurotic, lived a lot longer.
So the the old adage… “Worrying does no good.” is COMPLETELY thrown out the window. I’m worried. About everything.
Which brings me to EVERY other headline in the news today.
I am so worried about all of it. We better bump that age up to 139 years old.
==============
“Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
===============
“But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.”
― Thomas Merton
================
“But Piglet is so small that he slips into a pocket, where it is very comfortable to feel him when you are not quite sure whether twice seven is twelve or twenty-two.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
==================