Time to load the crop-dusters with Xanax

I think it's time for everybody to just take a deep breath. Relax.

In with the good air ... out with the bad air.

Or perhaps, better yet, we ought to just get one of these crop-dusters flying around to dump a giant dose of Xanax on the whole town ... or maybe the whole country.

Is it just me, or is pretty much the whole world just a wee bit edgy these days?

It seems like every time I turn around, someone's upset about something. Non-issues are suddenly issues; minor issues are suddenly a huge deal. It's as though folks are going out of their way to find something to be mad about.

My wife thinks it's because of the weather change. Something about a “seasonal affective disorder.” She might be on to something. Certainly, these dark mornings are making it all that much harder to get out of bed.

Personally, I’m blaming the ongoing presidential campaign. American democracy being what it is, it's not enough to simply like a candidate — you've got to hate the other side. And when you walk around in a state of constant disharmony, it's only a matter of time before that contention seeps into everything else you do.

And even if you manage to ignore the campaign and forget the weather, there's the whole financial meltdown thing to worry about. The fun folks over on the round-the-clock cable news networks tell us it's the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. And they’re kind enough to remind us of this over and over and over again. No wonder we're a little tense.

I know some people who seem to thrive on contention. It's like they can't be happy — or can't be productive — unless they have someone or something to be mad at. Anger is their motivation, and they always have a scapegoat ready at hand. I guess these folks are pretty cheery these days.

It's not that I don't mind a good debate every now and then. After all, an intelligent argument is good for the brain. But when the argument is over, I want to be able to walk away from it. I have no desire to live life in a permanent state of discord. It's not good for the soul. I don't think it's good for anybody.

And that's why I'm calling for a community-wide deep breath. We need to relax, mellow out ... remember that ultimately, we’re all on the same team.

A good, positive distraction from it all might be just the thing. Lucky for us, there’s a couple of community happenings this weekend that might fit the bill.

On Saturday morning, the Blytheville Area Soccer Association will be playing its fourth week of games. I've beat the drum for the soccer league before; and I'll do it again. Believe me, it's hard to be ticked off about much of anything when you're surrounded by so many kids in bright colors running around having fun.

And if soccer isn't your thing, there's the Gosnell Cotton Festival Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Featuring barbecue, a car show, a kids area, live music and more, the Cotton Festival is one of our community's great annual events, a pleasant respite from our hectic lives.

Whether you attend either of these events or not, the key is to relax. Chill out. Take a deep breath. Get away from it all. We need to find reasons to not be mad at each other. We need to find reasons to not complain about each and every little thing that doesn’t go our way.

We are all on this earth but for a short time. Who wants to go through life being angry?