Whose negative thinking pissed off Mother Nature?

I don't believe in all the end of the world talk, but I cannot remember a time when there were so many natural disasters. Just since the beginning of the year, there's been the earthquake in Christchurch (which destroyed my cousin's home) and then the one that devastated Japan, and more recently there's been all the tornadoes in the South and Midwest and the flooding of the Mississippi River. And next week marks the start of hurricane season. Yikes.

Having spent three days in Mississippi last fall on my way back to Las Vegas, I can tell you that the last thing those people need is a flood. No, make that a problem of any kind. There's a lot of poverty in Mississippi, folks. And I'm not talking the "I thought this would be a good investment, but now I'm upside-down in my house" or the "I was hoping to go to Europe this summer, but we'll have to settle for the Cape instead" type of poverty.  We travelled through a good part of the state, and aside from the old plantations, it was all shacks and trailers. And the people couldn't have been nicer.

Here's a video we made as we drove along Route 61, much of which has been under water for a while now. (The music is from a CD of my kids' band, the Blackwell Sinners.)



Of course, you realize the people of Mississippi brought this upon themselves due to generations of a poverty mentality; obviously they haven't been thinking the proper thoughts of abundance. No doubt they brought the floods upon themselves, too. And of course, the people of Joplin, Missouri, collectively needed to experience total devastation in order to ascend to the next level of consciousness, as did the people in Japan and Christchurch, so those tornadoes were their own doing. In fact, my cousin subconsciously wanted new furniture and with those thoughts, sure as shit, she attracted a damn earthquake.

Pardon my sarcasm.  I'm still not over Thursday's rant on New Age guilt.

Speaking of, I happened to catch a PBS special during my Sunday couch day about happiness.  I agree that for the most part, personal happiness depends on one's attitude and general approach to life.  Optimistic people are going to be happier; pessimists will look for the negative.  Within the first 10 minutes of the show, there was New Age guru Louise Hay talking about people with Alzheimer's.  Her take on it? 

"People with Alzheimer's are really removing themselves from life completely."

So obviously, this tragic disease, which research has shown to have a genetic disposition, is really a the result of a weak character that manifests in the avoidance of everyday life; Alzheimer's is their way of checking out.  The PBS interviewer asked about the scientific evidence.

"I don't believe in scientific evidence," she said.

Then how does she know this is true? 

"My inner ding."

Louise Hay's classic book, You Can Heal Your Life has sold over 35 million copies.  I bought one years ago and I've given it many times as gifts.  At one point, I believed a lot more of what she says than I do today. 

One thing I've learned in my old middle age is it's best to consider other people's feedback and advice, use what makes sense to you, and ignore the rest (including what you read in this blog).  How do you know what to use to what to ignore?  Your "inner ding" will tell you.  And if your inner ding says that what goes around comes around, send some money off to the American Red Cross.  Sending prayers and positive thoughts is a good start, but rebuilding from nothing is gonna take a lot more than that.