With age comes perspective, that most valuable quality and one poor Chicken Little did not possess. After all, he was a very young chicken.

In comparing my life to that of Chicken Little, I do feel that in this one example I have come out ahead. Yes, friends, I feel superior to Chicken Little. What an accomplishment. This should not be considered a trivial achievement either, because I come from a long line of champion worry warts. These people believed in being prepared for the worst. And yes, to give credit where credit is due, I know they had experienced the worst.

Most of our ancestors lived through war, pestilence, disease and poverty.

So yes, they had reason to worry about the future. On their behalf, I must say they never quit and when each crisis occurred they found a way to meet the challenge. Chicken Little did not share their experiences. Far from it. He spent most of his time and energy focused on responding to something that didn’t happen.

His motives were pure. No question. He lacked perspective and common sense. Chicken Little would have benefited greatly if he had reflected a little more wisely. If he had paused to explore the facts, analyze the situation and act appropriately, everyone would have been spared and we would never have had to listen to a somewhat tedious story.

To be just, I must acknowledge that in my youth I might well have reacted just as Chicken Little did when he was struck from above by an acorn. Or it may have been a pine cone. I don’t remember. I might have jumped to the conclusion that the sky was falling and well might have gathered along the way a credulous group of the uninformed to go and tell the king about the “terrible” event.

Now, at this advanced age, I might show a little more caution. I might say, “Something has fallen from the sky. I’m not sure what it is. I will Google it and find out if this is an acorn or a piece of the sky and act accordingly. Oh, I see, it is an acorn. Well, I believe I’ll go inside and mop the kitchen.”

End of story.

Most of the things I used to worry about have long since dropped from the list. I used to think, “Oh no. What if this happens or that happens?” I worried about possibilities which usually never happened at all.

Even world news can’t shake the hard-won knowledge that worry is futile.

Every day there will be terrible things happening somewhere. With few exceptions, other than my attitude in dealing with hardship, either my own or other people’s, I have no control over these events. What I’m still working on is determining what my role should be in dealing with the daily events that make up life. It’s a delicate business. What I do know is that Chicken Little made some mistakes I don’t want to follow.

We can’t control other people, natural disasters, accidents or the seemingly endless cycle of any one group’s determination to destroy their fellow man. We can only control how we choose to respond to these things.