On the Brink

As I've waded through the rising floodwaters, so to speak, of our social and economic dilemmas this past several months, I find it difficult to maintain a positive attitude about anything. Yet I've been through enough hell in my life to know that a positive attitude is the only way out of any trouble...and I mean real trouble. Not that what we're facing isn't "real," but that if I could significantly alter the outcome of actual physical, mental and emotional endangerment and confinement in my past experiences with right choice of attitude, I know without a shadow of doubt that we can, too...collectively as a nation.

The preeminent psychiatrist, Dr. Victor Frankel, wrote in his classic book, Man's Search For Meaning, of how he and a few of his fellow Jews survived Nazi concentration camps and ultimately gained their freedom by fundamental attitude shifting, and he detailed how it was done repeatedly through the most horrendous circumstances that we who view history only think we know about from the books, movies and stories of that time. But his, and their, journeys were very real. He wrote later on, after 3 1/2 years of daily torture and constant threats of imminent death in every passing hour that our only "real freedom" was our choice of attitude.

I read that book while I was in federal prison in the mid-80's, and turned an almost certain 25 years in prison without chance of parole into what ultimately worked out to be 2 1/2 years...and in almost every instance, turned my adversaries into allies. How did I do that? I chose to find something for which to be grateful in every day, and discovered that even in my adversaries I could find something to be positive about...and even respectful. I didn't "kiss up" to anyone, nor did I compromise my values or beliefs. I just chose to view things from a different perspective than being a "victim" or reacting to what or who was confronting me at any point.

We're "on the brink" of financial and political disaster, according to everything in the news, and according to many...if not most...of my friends and associates in the business world. While that may be true, I'm choosing to look at the crises in the world as merely rapids ahead that need to be traveled through not with horror or doom and gloom, but with a healthy sense of keeping ourselves off the rocks and trusting the ride...and working together to make it through. There are calm waters behind these troubled ones, and we can only make it worse by reacting to, or resisting or fearing what's coming. We've all known for quite some time that it was coming, so the only thing to do now is to maintain a good and positive attitude about the outcome...and be willing to suspend our pre-conceived notions about who's who and what's what.

There's a huge shake-out and cleaning up going on right now, and it won't be easy. The rats and the cockroaches are coming out of the woodwork, and it's getting easier and easier to spot them and put them where they belong. Meanwhile, we need to keep our focus on the rocks ahead and stay clear of them. And we need to be willing to work together to bring about a better world where truth, honesty and integrity cease to be merely words but more a way of life.

To me, that's worth going over the brink for. I've had enough of words, posturing and promising. Let's embrace the coming times as our parents, grandparents and Forefathers (and mothers) did through numerous wars, depressions and other challenges. We're still pioneers in every sense of the term, just like them...only our "frontier" may be the most arduous one of all...that being the human mind. Only right attitude and a healthy state of being can change that for the collective betterment of society in this day and age. That "brink" may look pretty scary right now, but it may not be all that bad...or that deep. In any case, there's no avoiding it; we might as well get ready for it, and learn to do things less selfishly and fearfully.

Don Kirchner
Sedona, AZ