I Am an Unrelenting Optimist, Except on Nights Like Tonight When I’m Not
Even then, I refuse to descend all the way to the bottom
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I broke both my ankles on July 3, 2021. If you read my humor articles about it, linked below, you’ll think I’m weathering the storm swimmingly. Except I can’t move my feet and ankles to tread water or kick. Some people might also say, based on my humor articles, that I’m weathering this event foolishly, or without realizing the seriousness and severity of the situation.
They might be right. I refuse to borrow trouble. My martial art, Aikido, says “Expect Nothing, Be Ready for Anything.” Add to that a Mindfulness practice of living as much as possible in the moment, and you have my life plan of action. Expect nothing, be ready for anything, embrace each moment, accept and adapt.
That doesn’t leave room for future catastrophizing, but it can make it appear to others that I’m not being realistic. Add to that the fact that I’m a psychotherapist who sees the good in nearly everyone (sociopaths excepted of course), and sometimes that equals gullibility. Okay, many times that equals gullibility. I know not to trust corporations, but I can still be fooled by people.
Tonight I spoke with a good friend, the leader of my screenwriting group. He’s also a retired personal injury lawyer. Hallelujah! If only I’d called him before talking to the insurance adjuster for the restaurant where I stepped into a hole in a concrete step where a chunk had been knocked out.
It isn’t that the insurance adjuster isn’t a nice person. I think she is. It’s that according to my lawyer friend, and common sense when I think clearly about it, her job is to save her company money, not necessarily take care of me.
My family bugged me to contact the insurance for the restaurant. We aren’t litigious in our family, although there have been numerous times we should have been, and for good reasons. They just wanted me to make sure the restaurant’s insurance would cover my medical expenses not paid by my insurance, and a myriad of other things I was going to need to adapt to being in a wheelchair in a second story apartment (no elevator) for six to eight months. They, and I, also worried about how I will pay bills while I…
