THE WORRY GENE : EVEN STONE AGE MAN WORRIED
Even Stone Age man had to find food and shelter; and although his needs were basic, satisfying them was no easy task. Will I find enough food for the day? Will my cave keep the rain away? (There were plenty of dark clouds around.) He also worried he may become part of the Stone Age food chain if he happened to stumble upon a nasty tempered Dinosaur.
The Stone Age did not remain an era when stone tools and weapons dominated; it transformed into the bronze, copper, iron and other Ages as archaeologists painfully parcel out in great detail. Whatever the Age, man remained a worrier. And in the modern world with emphasis on development or progress as some say, he has plenty of things to worry about compared to worries that bothered pre-historical brotherhoods. Worry circles the globe–from global warming, pollution, recessions, food shortages, political issues and wars–worries pollute people’s minds.
George and Grace are worriers
George de Silva woke up with a start: his wife Grace was fast asleep. Has the alarm gone off? He groped in the dark and switched on the bed-side lamp–it was 2.30 am–still a long way to go to catch the 7 o’clock train from Fort. “Oh, hell!” George cursed turning the light off to cuddle his wife and go back to sleep. There’s more time, hmmm…, but hey, if I doze off now will I wake up in time? Will the alarm go off ? Will Helen wake me up? She sleeps like a log. George couldn’t miss the train; he had to be in a court in Kandy that morning. Tossing and turning in bed George worried and worried until just before twilight, the alarm went off.
In the train, while watching the countryside roll by, George’s thoughts wondered–and he worried. Will Grace send the kids off to school in time? How will they manage in the bus? George worried specially after his daughter who was a fragile girl; he worried about his son too–he was
just seven. His worries went fur-
Adding to her worries of an unidentifiable noise the fridge made, her husband’s cholesterol, her absconding maid and her sensitive tooth, another worry hit her like a sledge hammer. Her husband had bought a motor bike for her six- foottwo- inch baby son a week ago. Talk about a whistling kettle!
ther…will they do OK at in school? God, with drugs and economic problems getting worse what type of future will they have? We would be gone by then. Will it rain? I wonder whether they remembered their umbrellas, thought George. (His son was recovering from the flu’.) With manic drivers, he also worried about his children crossing the road…
George worries day in day out, month after month, year after year–they keep tumbling after one another without a break. Gas prices have dropped but will petrol go up to offset that? There’s talk prices of essentials will go up before the budget. Gosh! If prices shoot up, how am I to pay my mortgage? Ahhh, and Helen’s operation is overdue. And this case; if it keeps getting postponed, how can I afford to pay the lawyers?
Helen worried too. On the news they had forecast landslides up-country. And George went by train…is the track in Kadugannawa safe? Pictures of a train jumping the rails and plunging down a hill kept flashing in her mind. She was only relieved when she received a phone call from George after he reached Kandy. That’s great, but what will happen with the case? Did George take the case file? And, did he take his heart pills before he left? One worry followed the other.
There are other worriers too
The de Silvas were not alone in worry. Their neighbour Nimalka was one who had realised that worry is like a kettle on the boil: it whistles when a lid is placed on it. Adding to her worries of an unidentifiable noise the fridge made (two electricians couldn’t nail the cause) her husband’s cholesterol, her absconding maid and her sensitive tooth, another worry hit her like a sledge hammer. Her husband had bought a motor bike for her sixfoot- two- inch baby son a week ago. Talk about a whistling kettle!
Nimalka sought sol- ace in house work while worrying heavily on what happens if the bike skids, hits a pedestrian, gets bumped from behind or has a head-on crash or a brush from a side…. She kept reviewing accidents she had read in the newspapers as she cooked, mopped, arranged the living room, cleared the fallen leaves on the lawn and ironed her husband’s shirts. “My son is a natural rider. Look at him go,” her husband had said proudly when their six-foot-two-inch baby boy took the gleaming iron horse for a spin for the first time… suddenly the worry swayed…Nimalka realized that the house work was done. Yes, worry can be of great help if anyone is landed with household chores, or a demanding job like cleaning out a flood hit home.
Creative worry has its moments
Worry can make one creative too. Nimalka’s hubby was taking regular plane trips to Chennai on business. But despite his bravado on land, he was a nervous flier. While an average passenger with butterflies all over would sit like a stone praying to all the gods while his brain screeched, “This plane will go down: it is the pilot’s first time, the plane is full of sinners who deserve to die….don’t talk nonsense… have faith in God…no, it won’t crash…it won’t crash”, hubby was more imaginative in worrying. Once when looking out of the window, he saw a two inch crack on the Port wing. How did they miss that? Gosh it will fall off at any moment! His mind ran a marathon imagining the consequences when a one-winged plane crashes in
to the sea.
When the one-winged plane crashed into the sea, with everybody in the cockpit and two stewardesses dead, it was he who made sure all the passengers got into the waiting boats from the Navy he called on his mobile when the plane was going down….
And when it did, with everybody in the cockpit and two stewardesses dead, it was he who made sure all the passengers got out of the sinking plane into the waiting rescue boats from the Navy he called on his mobile when the plane was going down…. He was still acknowledging the accolades that poured his way when came to earth–the plane had landed in Chennai–smoothly. On the positive side then imaginative worriers can create temporary heroes.
Expert remedy
Worries worry all. Somebody–a sort of expert on worrying people–had told Nimalka to get over worries she should list them out–both old and new clients–study them and write what she intends to do with them. Nimalka’s list was long. Among the listed worries were the cost of things; her baby boy’s bike; hubby on plane rides; her missing maid; noisy fridge; war in Syria; settling her Visa card dues, and yes, her sensitive tooth. Just reading through them appeared to lighten her worry load. Reading the intentions she had entered against them: ‘petition the President’;
he is a big boy now’; ‘flying is safer than motoring’; ‘manage without a daily’; ‘don’t bother–the fridge is working, isn’t it?’; ‘we can’t make the world’; made her feel even better. But, the remark she had made against the Visa dues ‘think woman, think,’ was a sign of desperation. Worse, ‘go see a dentist’ the remedial remark written against ‘sensitive tooth’ appearing in the list, made her whimper.
The expert’s advice worked–partly. Nimalka had been able to drop some of her worries and have fewer worries to work with. But, will her worries end? No, they won’t. In changing circumstances new worries would keep coming her way. But she really should not worry about. The worry business is a genetic thing you know; even Stone Age man was a worrier–and it did not stop there–the worry gene persists.