Worry wart

There is no doubt that genes play a pretty big role in the drama that is your life -- that's just a fact --and yet, can they be combatted?

If you have alcoholism in your genes -- can you actively not drink and avoid such a fate?

Is there any way to put the kabosh on going bald?

If brittle bones run in your family, if you ingest huge amounts of calcium can you avoid them?

And if you had a grandfather and father that were (are) huge worry warts, does that mean if you suddenly find yourself in a big pond of worry, that maybe you are doomed?

My grandfather worried about fire. After a barbeque, he would take the charcoal and spread it on the lawn and then he would hose it down, a big, black steaming mess. Then he would rake that out, and then hose it down again -- no longer steaming, just muddy blech.

"What are you doing, Grandpa?"

"One little spark and the whole house could go up in flames," he responded.

So after we were put in bed, even after I'd seen him shovel up the black gook and put it in a metal trash can, I would lay there and make sure there was no rogue and crazy spark waiting to flame the moment I closed my eyes. (This was after he explained that he had locked up the lion in the closet and fed it too, so it probably wouldn't come out while we were sleeping.) Yeah, he was a character.

My father likes to worry too -- and after years of working for him and waiting for the company to go belly up per his dire predictions, one day I just decided that worrying didn't really get you anywhere, and in truth, probably due to the focus, made things happen that didn't have to. (My grandfather's house actually did have a fire, though it was due to a tenant's cigarette).

So what happened? Where is the fine line between worry and being proactive? (Probably somewhere between hosing down the coals or just keeping an eye on dying ones!) The talk of food shortages here in the U.S. really freaked me out, I must admit. For all the doom and gloom is supposed to be in the future -- not like, soon!

Things that I've read about that would be symptoms of a changing world are starting to happen and I am like hyperventilating! Either I know too much or I am overreacting -- and perhaps taking out the hose and aiming it on a potential disaster would be comforting.

But as of now I am stopping -- finite! Done! I am coiling up the hose (it's also environmentally conscious not to use water needlessly!) and removing the worry wart, splicing the worry gene, and beginning a worry free existence.

I didn't even KNOW I was a worrier.
Until I realized I was worrying.

Hey, look on the bright side -- I'm not a balding, brittle-boned raging alcoholic.

Yet.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.