@HomewithDean - Homily 11/22 - a podcast by KFI AM 640 (KFI-AM)

I think I’m just going to stick with the theme of our show today: our imagination — our ability to
ponder and perceive what isn’t really there. It is, as we’ve already discovered, our greatest
strength, perhaps our single most distinguishing quality among all other life forms here on earth,
but also often our greatest weakness. Humans can imagine unbelievably beautiful things, and
indescribably horrible things. Neither of which—and here’s the important part—actually exist at
the moment of our imagining. At our best, our imaginations propel us to new heights and to
become our best self. At our worst we can choose our own imaginings—our own beliefs about
the world—regardless of how little they may reflect the actual truth, and fall into them like a
chasm for which there is no bottom.

One of the most debilitating manifestations of that chasm is worry. Worry, also known as
anxiety, is a form of fear. But not regular old fear. Not the “Oh no, that lion looks hungry, run
away” kind of fear. Most creatures on this planet have that kind of fear. That’s a fear of concrete
realities that are facing us in the here and now. Hungry lion running toward me ... I run away.
That fear is good fear. It keeps us alive.

But worry is something different altogether. Worry is a fear, not concerned with the moment at
hand, but with the future ... an imagined future. And there it is, until someone invents time travel
any discussion of the future is imagined future. To put it plainly, the future is all in your head. It’s
an abstraction, an inference. Maybe an accurate inference, maybe not. We only know two
things for sure about the future ... the one you’re imagining is literally all in your head, and the
real future—whatever that may be—is something you are notoriously bad at predicting.
What that teaches us about worry is that it’s not usually a very good idea. Worry takes you out
of the very real present moment to spend the time feeling preemptive fear for an imagined future
that you don’t even know will exist. And that is how we all end up wasting so much of our
precious time — in constant low-grade fear of made up things. Sound a little crazy? Welcome to
humanity.

Now, am I suggesting you only live in the moment, never have a thought about the future, never
make plans or prepare for possible trouble? No. I’m a designer. I make my living thinking about
things that don’t exist ... yet. All I’m saying is you and I could both be a whole lot happier and
healthier and outright better if we remember how susceptible we are to our own imagination and
when it comes to fear, dial it down.

A fairly famous first century philosopher once put it like this: “Who of you by being worried can
add a single hour to his life? ... Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Sounds like a sober approach to finding peace on earth. For the peace we’re all looking for
needs to rise up from inside us, having pushed our fears aside.
And to that I will only add the words from one my 4-year-old granddaughter Olivia’s favorite
songs: “Don’t worry. Be happy.”

Please have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Don’t fear what may or may not come next. Be grateful
for what’s here and now. Every moment. Every breath. Don’t worry, be happy. And then go and
build yourself a beautiful life.

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