practice pronoia

In our world, it can be a real challenge to maintain a positive attitude. Every age group has its share of whiners, but I personally find older people to be the most negative. You name it, they’re griping about it, such as: young people today, their aches and pains, how badly they want a Grandchild, how hard it is to see and hear, blah, blah, the list goes on and on.

My co-worker is 55, and she’s a great person in many ways, but she constantly gripes about all of these things and more. I’m 47, and trying to adopt a more positive attitude. I pray that I’m not like my co-worker by the time I’m her age. I think that a bad attitude can make a person grow old and/or die before his or her time. Regardless of age, one must do everything to remain positive!

Have any of you read this book, or seen the DVD related to it? I have not had the chance to get either of these things just yet, though I’ve read about them. “The Secret” has been featured on Oprah, and it sounds similar to pronoia.

I had a miracle happen on Sunday morning that still amazes me, and no, it has nothing to do with church!

If any of you have been shopping for a Nintendo Wii lately, you know that it isn’t easy. My husband and I had promised our daughter one for Christmas, but were unable to locate one.

Our daughter checked the Internet and saw that they were not going to be available until January 15. I was off from work that day due to the MLK holiday, and spent the whole day searching for a Wii without success. Every place that I went, I made notes to remind myself when Wiis would be available. One clerk at Best Buy told me that he waited in line 10 hours for his Wii, and that it was worth it. (This surprised me – I thought that one of the “perks” of working in a place like that was being able to buy merchandise as soon as it arrived, before the public knew about it.)

Last Sunday (1/21), my daughter told me that she saw something on the Internet saying that Wiis may be available at Circuit City and/or Best Buy. Tho I was skeptical, I ventured out anyway. First I went to Circuit City, and was told that they had 50 Wiis earlier that morning, but all of them sold out immediately. I was there at about 10:40 AM, and the clerk told me “Best Buy is supposed to get 36 Wiis in today, and they don’t open until 11.” So I drove over to Best Buy and got in line. I was not optimistic as there were a bunch of people ahead of me. I called home and told my daughter what was happening, and cautioned her not to get her hopes up too high. She told me that she had her “lucky underwear” on, and I advised her to have her little brother put his lucky underwear on too, and for both of them to cross their fingers.

11 AM came, the store opened, and the clerk counted off 36 people who were way ahead of me in line. I nearly left, but thought “Wait a minute, maybe someone will say when the next shipment will arrive.” So I hung around, and was so grateful that I did. Several of the 36 changed their mind about getting Wiis. One lady said that she didn’t even want one, she was looking for a Nintendo Lite, and got out of line. Then the clerk asked again who wanted a Wii, and I raised my hand. This time, I was able to get it! When I called my daughter with the news, she cried tears of joy, which made my struggle all worth it. And I waited a total of only 20 minutes on Sunday – talk about being in the right place at the right time!

After I bought the Wii and brought it home, I immediately went back to Circuit City and told the clerk that I advised my family to buy all Wii-related supplies from him at Circuit City and thanked him a lot for his help. That was very unusual for a clerk to advise a customer to buy something from a competitor.

This is pronoia at its best – I knew that Wiis were in short supply, but never gave up hope. And now we have one, and the family just loves it! I’m happy, and I don’t even play video games. I’m just glad for my game-crazy family!

A few days ago, on www.salon.com, I read a letter to their advice columnist from a woman having major problems with a co-worker. As I have been there, done that, I was very interested, and the advice columnist did not disappoint. He advised the woman to avoid the co-worker “as if she were a toxic gas”.

Unfortunately, there are many people in this world that we should avoid at all costs. No matter how positive we are, there are those negative ones who will try to drag us down to their level. The operative word here is try. If we spend as little time with them as possible, we can continue to hold our heads up.

I fear that I have no choice but to treat my father in this fashion. He is 72, and I’m afraid that he may be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. He aggravates me by repeating the same stories over and over again. And his hearing is really bad – I often have to repeat things over and over again before he understands. I have come to dread his visits at Christmas every year.

After we spoke to wish each other a Happy Easter this afternoon, it took me a half of an hour to calm down. My husband tells me that I should be nice to the old man, and always says that I’ll regret it after Dad dies if I’m not nice to him now. I’m not so sure. I’ve lost people that I’ve had problems with in the past, and I’ve never been bothered in this way. Why should I? After they are gone, they are in another world. Those of us who remember them will always have our memories. After a death happens, we go on the best we can. That’s all we can do.

I only recently discovered Rob Brezny, so the whole concept of Pronoia is a new one to me.

Today’s quote on my “Getting In Touch with Your Inner Bitch” calendar fits in with Pronoia, in my opinion. It is:

“God made a very obvious choice when he made me voluptuous; why would I go against what he decided for me? My limbs work, so I’m not going to complain about the way my body is shaped.” – Drew Barrymore

Comments like this from actresses are rare, and unstandably so. Hollywood has always promoted unrealistic body images for women. In addition to the quote above, Ms. Barrymore also impressed me a few years ago when she insisted on putting a scene in one of her “Charlie’s Angels” movies where her character pigs out on a fast food meal. She wanted to disprove the notion that women must be thin to be beautiful. Good for her!