A quick streak to the bathroom. A knot permanently embedded in your tummy. A line of pain that begins in your shoulder blades and runs up the base of your skull.

You grind your teeth to the point they are caving in. You twitch and shake your leg so furiously in your sleep your spouse gets seasick. You try and hand someone something and your hand is shaking so bad they notice it. They don’t care though, they know what is causing it because most of the time they can relate.

Stress, the killer and destroyer of health, mental stability and in some cases relationships! They say stress can cause everything from stomach pains to ulcers! From a rash to death! It is sad that that we humans seem to understand nothing but stress. Even the structure of our lives is designed for more! I am ashamed to say, but I truly believe that humanity is doomed by design, and that unless we undo the entire fabric of our own reality we will always be cursed with stress!

Have we overcomplicated our lives to the point of killing ourselves slowly with our own social inventions? Take capitalism for instance. The pursuit of money, by design, is competitive and draining. Something that requires daily struggle to achieve is a recipe for stress. Children, one of the things that separate us from most animals is the family structure. Having children is also a huge source of stress. It is not like in the animal world where offspring is birthed, and maybe after some brief and helpful prodding they are on their own in weeks or months. Human children take forever to develop before they can be on their own, and in modern times it almost seems like they will never be on their own!

Social cultures are also huge cesspools for growing stress for the long haul. Neighbors irritate, a town who gossips. A back stab here and a back stab there, here a stab there a stab, every where a stab stab! Maybe Ole McDonald lived stress free on his farm, I however have not figured out how to get rid of stress. As of late the stress has been mounting and from all directions. I know everyone out there including myself, are part of the problem, but are we part of the solution? We will never be without stress because we can not be without greed, envy and that little pinch of ugliness we all have inside us to ruin another person’s day. Whether on purpose or just by the happenchance that comes with living life they way it is currently formatted.

Think about it. With every action there is a reaction and an outcome! So if you got that job you wanted, someone else didn’t. For everyone going away on vacation there are people that don’t even know how to spell the word. Every time you vote or pick the wrong person, or make a choice that effects the outcome for a town, county or state, someone is effected.

Sure maybe in the world of ants, where everything is for the good of the colony and everyone is uniform stress may not exist. I am all for individuality, because individuality is one of the things that does not cause me stress.

Really folks I have no wisdom on this matter. After 52 years I still cannot figure out how to stop the stress from destroying me. If you have any ideas that might help this world head in a different and more evolved direction, please let us know!

 

Tim Flanagan and his wife, Teresa, own and operate The Flanagan House Bed and Breakfast in Murfreesboro.