Keeping Your Head Above Water

"High water risin', the shacks are slidin' down
Folks lose their possessions - folks are leaving town
Bertha Mason shook it - broke it
Then she hung it on a wall
Says, 'You're dancin' with whom they tell you to
Or you don't dance at all.'
It's tough out there
High water everywhere"

Bob Dylan
"High Water (for Charley Patton)"

Yes, even this old dog can appreciate some music, be it folk or otherwise. A longtime Dylan fan, (you might even say I've been a fan for a dog's age...) I was reminded of these lyrics when I stopped to consider the current world situation. At home and abroad, a lot of things seem to be falling to pieces, and more stress is the last thing I need with my arthritis acting up and that little dog next door yapping his brains out. These young dogs today, they never shut up. They get house-trained, and the next thing you know, they think they own the world. But I digress - back to my emotional tribulations.

It can be tough to try and make any sense of the world when just reading the front page of the newspaper or turning the television to a news channel means being bombarded by nothing but bad news, worse news, the sports section, and maybe a little sidebar article about bad news. They say 'no news is good news', which is tempting to agree with, but in this day and age in which the media demands we stay informed 24/7, that seems to be a real impossibility.

Over 300 tornadoes in one week in the American Midwest means homes and businesses shattered, lives lost and ruined. Even though the heavy operations of the war in Iraq have been declared over, Americans and Iraqis continue to die. Tensions run high with Syria and North Korea, and even with France, an old ally declared an 'enemy of the progress of freedom.' SARS is causing global panic, and health officials are having a devil of a time trying to figure out what it will do next, while trying to somehow salvage the faltering economies of the countries it currently tears into.

When all these problems in the world seem to be too much, it's easy to let the problems get the best of you. With all the pressures mounting up, it gets more and more difficult to look at your own situation objectively. That's when it's time to go outside and get some fresh spring air. Try and clear your mind as best you can and relax. If things bother you enough, then why not try and change them? Help in anyway you can, as long as it's positive and beneficial to a worthy cause. Remember it's possible to effect the change you want, and this is true even in the face of great opposition. We arthritis sufferers should get as active as possible, to help our own needs as well as others, and prove we are the indomitable force to be reckoned with that we are. Yes, it is tough out there, and the water is rising high, but we're still swimming.