Iowa Specialty Hospital

Notes from Steve

January 13, 2020

We were supposed to get maybe one inch of snow last Friday.  We got nine.  What?  Ok, so I don’t mind when the predication is in our favor (like “I gained maybe a pound over the holidays … oh, wait - i lost four pounds”) but when it slaps you in the face (“I gained 12”) -- it’s just not fair.  This seems to happen a lot.  Pollyanna optimists frequently get stomped on.  Predicting wonderful things to happen is nice, but it is far from reality.  (The snow was pretty … dreadful, but pretty.)

I prefer to skate along life’s highway with only good news.  So I take the good news in stride (“it’s supposed to happen that way”) and when the less than great news happens, I’m devastated.  I watched a thing on Winnie the Pooh the other day.  Eeyore has the worst outlook; he expects the worst outcome in every situation so his happiness is always compromised. Bad news is expected all the time.  But there are no bad surprises because he expected the worst would happen and so anything better than the worst is a nice gift. 

With this in mind I’ve been asking people who have ridden in my car with me lately, what are the 10 best things about Iowa?  They look at me like I have 2 heads and ask “what?”.  So I prompt them.  “Casey’s stores are great and they’re everywhere! I would definitely have that on my list.  I’d have the bike trails and caucuses on my list as well …”  Then they start talking about Casey’s or bike trails.  I gently push them back to what are their 10 things.  I’m trying to get people (hostages in my car) to look at their lives differently - what is awesome about your life; job, state or community you live in, you in general.  I think we all need a nudge to be more optimistic and find and treasure the really cool things life has to offer.  Don’t be an Eeyore. 

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