List Before List After List: The Rat Pack Takes the Worry-Wart Quiz

Hey Listers,

Worried? I am sure you are. There is a lot to be worried about these days. And everybody is worried about something sometimes (not to be confused with Dino’s “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”… though just as true). But even the smooth talking, care-free Rat Pack had their worries. Like when Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped. Imagine how nerve-racking that would be! Us normal folks have more common things to worry about.

First and foremost on everyone’s mind is this fiscal pit we’ve fallen into. The DOW continues to drop. Huge firms are flopping. Banks are bankrupt. And you are worried about your money, your future, your children’s future, and your children’s children’s future. Who wouldn’t be?

Then there is the Presidential election. Who are you going to vote for? Will he fix our problems? Can he put an end to our worrying? And then even if he says he can, will he?

And don’t forget about the simpler uncertainties in life. What to wear tomorrow? What to eat for dinner? How will this presentation go? And how far below that red line can the fuel gage go before you have to fill up on $4-gas?

So many questions, so few answers.

"Today is the tomorrow I was so worried about yesterday." It’s so true, yet, makes absolutely no sense if you think about it.

What’s all this worrying for? What’s it mean? That you have to hold off on that 60-inch plasma to hang on the wall, or that roomy new black-leather Gucci handbag. That you can’t lay a gas-hogging footslam on the accelerator when the light turns green. And that you can’t go to Sin City for a Sammy-Davis-style New Year’s bash.

Now I’m not going to pretend I’m Nietzsche or anything, but does any of this truly matter? You need to have “the ability to let that which truly doesn’t matter slide” because “everything will work out – it always does.”

The truth of the matter is this: there is always plenty to worry about, always; and worrying never makes anything better – it doesn’t solve problems and doesn’t make issues go away. So instead of wasting away worrying about things – especially things that truly do not matter – why not take a break from your worries, smile and take a deep breath. Because just as it reads on Sinatra’s tombstone: “The Best Is Yet To Come.”

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