ICE CRYSTALS

"WHY WORRY?"
By Col. Thew J. Ice, Jr. (USAF)

Are you worried about anything? Well, you shouldn't be! Oh, I know that you have plenty of things that you can worry about, but I didn't ask if you had any problems--I asked if you were worried, and again I say that you shouldn't be. Most of us make little distinction between such words as "worry," "trouble," and "problem," and yet I feel that the way to actually reduce our worries and our troubles is to change them into problems. The word "problem" implies reasoning--logical thinking in order to work something out. Don't worry--think! The next time you find yourself going over and over a matter with no apparent solution in sight, stop and ask, "Am I worrying or thinking?"

If you think about your problem, you should be able to decide whether your problem is dead or alive. If your problem concerns past events and is of such a nature that nothing can be done about it, don't waste time by churning it over and over in your mind. Think about it--decide if there is a lesson to be learned which may be applied to the future and then forget the rest.

In Wyoming, I heard about the Kahula bird. It seems that this bird flies backwards because it doesn't give a hoot where it is going--it only wants to see where it has been. Don't be a Kahula bird.

If your problem is still alive, attack it logically. What is the problem? What are the facts? What, if any, assumptions must be made? Based on the known facts and acceptable assumptions, what courses of action can be taken and what will be the probable outcome of each course? Then decide what is the best possible course and do it.

Be careful when you make assumptions that they are not only possible but also probable. Few military commanders would ever order an attack if it were always assumed that the enemy had an extra division hidden in close reserve.

Most worries are caused by assumptions which are based primarily on imagination. You have a problem and know certain facts concerning it. At this point, logic is pushed aside by imagination, and the sky is the limit. For example, you are involved in an automobile accident. The other party threatens to sue you, and you start to worry. "What will happen if he does sue me?" "He may win." "Perhaps he will be awarded damages for more than my insurance." "When this happens, I'll have to sell my house and rent one at a high rate per month." "That will cost so much that I'll never be able to send my children to college." Unless you stop worrying and start thinking, you will not recognize that your mind started with an assumption: "He will sue me," and then, treating this as a fact, proceeded to pile assumption on assumption with each preceding assumption treated as a fact, until the original trouble is completely obscured by the worry that the children will be deprived of an education.

I call this "swimming the river before you get there." If your logical analysis of the problem indicates that you may have to swim the river, then by all means provide for this possibility in your plans, but don't go through all the frantic motions of fighting every ripple and floating log and end up, in your imagination, with your loved ones tenderly placing flowers on your grave. Don't swim the river till you get there--there may be a bridge or a boat!

I hope that the next time someone asks you, "Are you worried about anything?" you will be able to reply honestly, "No, but I am sure doing a lot of logical thinking about some problems."

{This was an article my father wrote and gave as a speech to a graduating class of young military officers in the late 1940s. The philosophy has helped me a lot in my life, and I wanted to share it with you.}