May 10: Alice Holmborg, Cross Your Legs, Positive Thought

"Alice Holmborg showed me how.  You cross your legs and hold your breath and think of something very, very hot.  A radiator or something.  Then your whole forehead gets so hot you can burn somebody's hand."

Phoebe, Holden's little sister, is the speaker.  She's telling her brother how she can control her body temperature with her mind.  Of course, in reality, she can't, but she believes she can.  She has faith she can.  It's a child's faith.  She doesn't need empirical evidence or a school textbook.  For her, it's simply a matter of thinking truth into existence.

On this P.O.E.T.S. Day morning, I want to embrace this notion of positive thought.  I want to believe in goodness for myself, family, and friends.  Right now, I'm waiting for my daughter's teacher to call me about a situation in the classroom.  I'm believing things will be resolved well.  This afternoon, I'm going to buy some new running shoes.  I have an old gift certificate (a couple of birthdays old, actually) from the shoe store.  I believe I will be able to use it.  I may have to cross my legs and hold my breath like Phoebe, but I'll be able to use it.

I tend to be the kind of person who anticipates negative outcomes all the time.  If I'm summoned for jury duty, I will end up serving on a three-month-long murder trial.  If I bring my car into the garage for an oil change, I will end up needing a brake job.  That's just the way things go for me.  I expect it.  When the oil change for my car ends up being only an oil change, I'm shocked.

The last couple weeks have been unusually positive for me.  Last week, I was chosen as contingent faculty member of the year by the English Department at the university.  This weekend, my daughter ended up winning a gold medal in her dance competition.  On Tuesday, my wife was offered a job.  (She couldn't accept it because of childcare issues, but she had the opportunity.)  I'm almost starting to believe in the goodness of the universe.  Perhaps the stars are aligning for me.

Maybe, next Monday, I'll be offered a full-time, tenured position at the university, and my manuscript will win not only the chapbook competition I entered, but also the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.  In June, my daughter will be offered a full-ride scholarship to the Julliard School for Dance, and my son will be advanced to fifth grade because of his kindergarten entrance tests.  Next October, the Nobel committee will award me the Prize for Literature, and, by Christmas, I will be canonized by Pope Francis and become the first living saint.

Saint Marty likes this positive thinking stuff.

Irritating song, good sentiment.