As I walked through the local park a few weeks ago, the sun was shining, the breeze warm, and Umphrey's McGee's "Mantis" was blasting on my iPod. I've taken to listening to that album pretty exclusively while at the gym or outside walking, because it lifts my spirits like no other music. A bit of an obsession, you may think, but I always feel refreshed and full of ideas following an Umphrey's workout session.
One of the lines in the Umphrey's song "Mantis", "Turmoil stands like old rubber bands, unbreaking" started me thinking. The fact is, rubber bands eventually do degrade and break - it has probably happened to you and it stings if one snaps on you while you're trying to wrap it around a pile of books or tuck your hair into a ponytail.
There's no denying that there is turmoil of all types in our world. The smaller stuff (spilling your coffee, or a dead battery in your car) to the more weighty (a sick child or parent, or worse) - it can often feel like pretty big trouble while it's happening to you. Terrorism, war, economic crises and pandemic illnesses loom large, touching some directly and all by our connection to each other.
If rubber bands can and do break, I propose that the chain of turmoil can be broken as well. It will mean breaking the habit of focusing on the negative, talking about only the bad news, the problems, the annoyances, the illnesses, the terrorists. I don't suggest we bury our heads in the sand, but each in our own way concentrate on spreading positivity and good. Support one another. Laugh when we can. Acknowledge the challenges, then begin the plan to change our individual lives and the world, bit by bit, one rubber band at a time.
