When you climb a rock wall in a climbing gym, you will be on belay. There will be a rope hooked to your climbing harness, run through a pulley at the top of the wall, and back down through the belay device on your belayer’s harness. This contraption keeps climbers from crashing to the ground.

Another way to keep someone from crashing to the ground, say if they were jumping from a burning building, is a net. It needs several people to hold it, but the load and the responsibility are shared.

Last week, my email was the sound of someone falling. So many of you held fast the edges of the net. You offered solace and suggestions. You kept me from crashing. You made me think about the value of a net and how it differs from a belay.

This week I followed the good advice and stayed in the present, rather than make dire projections about the future.

This is what I did. All of it helped:

▶︎I reduced my news intake.

▶︎Whenever I drifted toward awfulizing, I asked myself, “Are you omniscient?” The answer was always “No.” I’m just one more person who doesn’t know sh*t.

▶︎Several times I remembered my twenty-something self, living in Minneapolis. I had voted for Minnesota’s beloved senator Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election. Minnesota was the only state Mondale won, a jaggedy blue rectangle at the top middle of a solid red map. I was convinced the country had made a horrible mistake, but Ronald Regan became one of my favorite presidents, and a reminder that I don’t know, I never know, I will never now, how anything is going to turn out.

Instead of “What if…?” I focus on “What now?” This way, when the time comes, I’ll be able to hold fast my edge of the safety net, to keep someone else from crashing.

Chewing the Cud of Good

Thankful for my mom’s friends who have become my friends.