Random Thoughts at Mid-Month

We have a word in Danish that has no direct translation into English:

Strøtanker

At best, it could be translated as "scattered thoughts" or "meandering thoughts."

For me, it's what happens when I just allow my mind to wander from thought to thought, unencumbered by the inner voices — or personal peanut gallery — reminding me of all the things I "should" be doing with my time.

Lately, I have been pondering the whole "positive thinking" notion; maintaining a positive attitude in life.

On paper, that has always sounded like a good thing to do, but how do you maintain a positive attitude in the face of seemingly endless disappointment?

It seems almost disingenuous to try to find the silver lining in the 27th consecutive failure at something; failure at life, itself.

I remember reading some critiques of the whole "positive affirmations" movement which pointed out that our minds and bodies — from a purely psychological perspective — know when we are trying to lie to them.

As in, looking in the mirror and exclaiming "everything is wonderful!" ten times in a row when you perfectly well that everything is in the toilet is actually worse for your emotional well-being than saying nothing at all.

Positivity is great; but practicing active self-deception in the name of "a positive mental attitude" is pretty useless. Damaging, even.

I guess the point here is that life is sometimes really negative, and pretending that it is not won't actually eliminate that reality.

As I often do, when having these meandering thoughts, I found myself recalling not so much how high the last crypto bull run was, but how short it actually was.

We have these insane but brief profit opportunities... but the rest of the time we're sitting and watching a long slow decline that never seems to end. Just observing here, but what does such a pattern tell us about the underlying asset?

I'm not going to dwell on it excessively; my primary objective these days is to slowly rebuild the Hive Power I gave up to pay our property taxes, a couple of years back. I loosely estimated it would take "about 1000 days" to do so, and it looks like that estimate will hold true.

Unless, of course, we have another 2017 style runup, soon.

Meanwhile, trying to focus on the here and now, and on those few things over which we do have a small measure of control. Like enjoying the present.

Which includes playing with our two new kittens, who are bringing new energy and light to our home. I have had cats since University... even though I grew up in a "dog family" that had no interest in cats. It's not that I don't like dogs, mind you... I do.

Getting back to the whole "positive thinking" issue, perhaps I would have a better attitude if even one thing were to go "better than expected," rather than "worse than feared."

Could be our little cats are that bit of positivity...

Well, perhaps I should bring this rambling to a close... we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week ahead!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2024-09-16 02:19 PDT
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