I was no ordinary hypochondriac. My father owned a drug-store, and I was practically
brought up in it. I talked to doctors and nurses every day, so I knew the names and
symptoms of more and worse diseases than the average layman. I was no ordinary
hypo-I had symptoms! I could worry for an hour or two over a disease and then have
practically all the symptoms of a man who was suffering from it. I recall once that, in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the town in which I lived, we had a rather severe
diphtheria epidemic. In my father's drug-store, I had been selling medicines day after
day to people who came from infected homes. Then the evil that I feared came upon
me: I had diphtheria myself. I was positive I had it. I went to bed and worried myself into
the standard symptoms. I sent for a doctor. He looked me over and said: "Yes, Percy,
you've got it." That relieved my mind. I was never afraid of any disease when I had it-so I
turned over and went to sleep. The next morning I was in perfect health.
For years I distinguished myself and got a lot of attention and sympathy by specialising
in unusual and fantastic disease-I died several times of both lockjaw and hydrophobia.
Later on, I settled down to having the run-of-mill ailments-specialising on cancer and
tuberculosis.
I can laugh about it now, but it was tragic then. I honestly and literally feared for years
that I was walking on the edge of the grave. When it came time to buy a suit of clothes
in the spring, I would ask myself: "Should I waste this money when I know I can't
possibly live to wear this suit out?"
However, I am happy to report progress: in the past ten years, I haven't died even once.
How did I stop dying? By kidding myself out of my ridiculous imaginings. Every time I felt
the dreadful symptoms coming on, I laughed at myself and said: "See here, Whiting, you
have been dying from one fatal disease after another now for twenty years, yet you are
in first-class health today. An insurance company recently accepted you for more
insurance. Isn't it about time, Whiting, that you stood aside and had a good laugh at the
worrying jackass you are?"
I soon found that I couldn't worry about myself and laugh at myself at one and the same
time. So I've been laughing at myself ever since.
The point of this is: Don't take yourself too seriously. Try "just laughing" at some of your
sillier worries, and see if you can't laugh them out of existence.
I Have Always Tried To Keep My Line Of Supplies Open"
By
Gene Autry
The world's most famous and beloved singing cowboy
I figure that most worries are about family troubles and money. I was fortunate in
marrying a small-town Oklahoma girl who had the same background I had and enjoyed
the same things. We both try to follow the golden rule, so we have kept our family
troubles to a minimum.
I have kept my financial worries to a minimum also by doing two things. First, I have
always followed a rule of absolute one hundred per cent integrity in everything. When I
borrowed money, I paid back every penny. Few things cause more worry than
dishonesty.