What is the Deal with this Thingumabob?

Thing: Any matter, circumstance, affair, or concern; that which is done, has been done, or is to be done.


Today I'm thinking about things. Big things, little things, things that you can see and touch, real things. What am I going to allow to get under my skin today? People? Of course I'm going to let people get under my skin. I think that's why other people were put on the face of the earth -- to annoy me somehow or to resist my attempts to control their every move. Is it the people or is it their actions? In my case it's clearly both. Irritating people doing irritating things to me is pretty much the story of my life.

I wonder how much of my time I spend worrying about unimportant things or about things that will never happen. I bet I would be APPALLED at how much time I waste doing this. I bet it would add up to years and years of my life. I know that when I imagine that something bad is going to happen to me it almost never comes to pass. That makes all this time wasting even more galling. Not only do I spend a lot of time worrying about unimportant stuff most of it never happens. And then there's my preoccupation with stuff. Worrying about stuff is the height of madness.


Would it be worth my time today worrying about how the N.Y. press would treat me if I struck out to end the game, with the bases loaded, to lose the World Series? As if someone could get something past me? Or worrying about the condition of an object or someone else's opinion of me. If nothing is actually going on that is a problem, I make things up. I project implausible outcomes arising from an improbable series of events far, far in the future.

Man, there's a lot of stupid stuff that can preoccupy my time.