who complicate it? When we complicate it do we become our own victims, victims of "stinking thinking?"

Perhaps the best scientific exploration of optimism, an incredible research study thirty-five years in the making entitled "Pessimistic Explanatory Style as a Risk Factor for Physical Illness: A Thirty-five Year Longitudinal Study", J Person Soc Psych 55 (1988): 23-7, by C. Peterson, M. Seligman, and G. Vaillant, three main findings were established: 1. Optimists live longer than pessimists; 2. Optimists suffer from fewer and less severe diseases; 3. Optimists are much healthier than pessimists.

Some of the benefits of being an optimist according to research are that we know that we will receive greater health benefits, higher quality of life--manifested by greater success, greater happiness and greater love. So, this holiday season take the time to revisit your own priorities for life. Hold on to your dreams. Never give up on thinking what was and what is and what can be. Yes we can all be winners in good times and survivors during the hard times.

If we want to relieve the tremendous stress on friends and family structures, we must make a positive commitment this holiday season to help others, as well as ourselves. We must all become promoters for hope. We need to work together to prevent symptoms of depression and anxiety from dominating our community this holiday season. We need a positive environment to help our children enjoy this most sacred season, and we all have a role to play to make sure those around us remain emotionally stable and use effective coping skills.

This holiday season take an opportunity to make a difference in someone's life. When churches, synagogues, mosques, businesses, and governments collaborate, impressive things can happen to cause productive change in communities and among individuals. The impact could be of a global magnitude. I personally invite everyone in the community to visit with me and my

family at Westmore Church of God this Christmas and hear my pastor Kelvin Page deliver a fine sermon. If you do by chance get my seat, remember that is okay with me!

Like many I have learned what the power of faith can accomplish in an individual life. In addition, faith has traditionally played a crucial role in shaping both American institutions and civil society, and America has thrived as a model of democracy and equality precisely because of this pervasive religiosity and the traditions it helped establish. The abundance of faith based voices in the public square does not mean that the issues of the day will suddenly vanish. But the inclusion of faith based organization's views and voices does allow communities to explore areas of consensus that are often overlooked. It provides the faith based community the opportunity to do what it does best, serving others and expanding its role in serving society.

Remember to make this a holiday season to remember. To somebody you may be just the gift they need. Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr often shared this prayer with people, and it helps remind me when I face depression.

The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference;
Living one day at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it:
Trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next.

Merry Christmas Bradley County and Happy 2007!

--J. C. Bowman is a public policy analyst who resides in Cleveland, TN..
He can be reached by email at: flapolicy@hotmail.com. 

Visit his website at: www.policyexperts.net
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