‘Don’t worry ‘bout a thing, cause every little thing, is gonna be all right…’. Bob Marley
Bob was right: we shouldn’t get ourselves het up about things; as far as possible, we should be happy with what we have, try to enjoy the simple pleasures of each day, avoid feeling stressed as best we can – no doubt doing that is best for both our own health and wellbeing and other people’s, too.
The nugget of wisdom in the be-chilled view is that we often worry about trivialities – we certainly do in ‘First World’ countries: the corporate ladder; the big house and car; the frenzy of social media; the lives of others; fashion … As the sledgehammer poet and novelist Charles Bukowski once said, “We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”
Eaten up by nothing. Withering phrase.
On the other hand, there are things worth worrying about, or getting exercised by. Here are some I can think of, in no particular order:
1. Our planet: this crippled beast of a world we seem intent on tearing to pieces – isn’t that worth worrying about?
2. The impact of war on people: war in Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan, Sudan, and many other places. And the constant risk of conflagration, too, which we see in many places around the world – isn’t that worth getting exercised by?
3. Poverty: about half of the world’s population, apparently, lives below the breadline. And I read in the Guardian recently that an online auction bidder paid 120K for the gold watch once owned by the richest person to go down with the Titanic; great use of 120K. I’m sure I do my fair share of squandering money.
4. Injustice: human right’s abuses, greed, negligence, cruelty, violent intolerance of others – these things create told and untold suffering everywhere
5. Migration: its desperate causes, and its impacts
6. Consumerism: the we-always-need-more myth. Do I really need five pairs of trainers, ‘best-in-class’ earpods that stay in while I’m jogging, and a music system with interconnected speakers in every room in my house?
7. The rise of the machines – AI and all that…where technology is taking us, and may take us, and how bad people may exploit it
8. People in desperate circumstances: physical and/or mental health issues; alienation and loneliness; the desperate, wearing, daily struggle faced by many to make ends meet; homelessness; the erosion of community cohesion…
8. The animal kingdom: how we treat the beasts who have at least as much right as us to be here.
I’m sure you can think of other things, or a different slant on those I have mentioned.
Worrying is rarely helpful, of course, but getting exercised can spur us to action. There are good people everywhere who are trying to do something about all of these miserable problems, and maybe in the end that’s the best measure, for each one of us, of a life well spent?
