Day Makers and Breakers

Bob Shieffer's "Free Speech" segment on the CBS Evening News last night made me think.
He said:

There's been a lot of bad news this week but if you were in Detroit like I was, you wouldn’t know it.

The only thing I found in Monday’s papers there was that the Detroit Tigers were heading to the World Series. From the front page to the business section I found 23 — count 'em, 23 - stories about that.

That’s the great thing about sports. No matter how bad the news, when our team wins, the day gets a lot better.

In the long course of human events who wins a ball game really makes no difference, but it made me wonder. If we can choose things that don’t matter — like winning a pennant - to make us happy, how many times do we choose things of no consequence to make us sad or mad?

Like a car that cuts in front of us in traffic. That hardly matters, but its ruined the day of many a rush hour driver. Or that 15 seconds with a rude waiter or sales clerk that leaves us in a bad humor for 24 hours. Or sweating bullets over which college our kids get into when what matters is what they get out of it, not where they got in.

Too often we allow our emotions to be ruled by the inconsequential, which causes us to miss the things that do matter.

But for now, let's not bother Detroit's good people with any of that. After auto industry problems and layoffs, this is the first good news they’ve had in a while. They’re enjoying it while they can.

I know my whole day can be ruined, or a chunk of it anyway, by inattentive drivers, bad Starbucks service or webpages that are slow to open. Things that do matter get lost, things like my partner who loves me, my home which, though small, shelters me, my furry children who need head rubs, walks and cage cleanings, and a job that covers most of our expenses. So what if the Starbucks guy doesn't smile at me. I can still smile at him, as well as at the driver who cuts me off and the webpage that is taking a siesta.