Several years ago, there was a comedian whose tag line was “It don’t matter.” I don’t remember the jokes, or the name of the comedian, but five minutes into his performance, the audience joined in yelling, “It don’t matter!” The phrase stuck with me and my husband and we used it a lot.
It can mean many things, but we used it to dismiss outsized worries. Outsized worries begin with ‘What if.’ ‘What ifs’ are highly unlikely possibilities of a future disaster. We felt we had enough real worries, so we dismissed the dark possibilities with ‘It don’t matter.’
There are, of course, a lot of things that do matter. Some are personal, such as family matters, or career, some political, religious or ecological. There are worrisome problems that have to be solved in concert with others over time. Maybe you pick one (or two) of these mega-problems, and do what you can to help – write letters, donate money, go to meetings – whatever you can do to help – but don’t adopt it. It is not just your personal problem. You don’t have the power or influence to solve it on your own. Thinking you do is pure arrogance.
Then there are the hair-on-fire emails, texts, phone calls and mailers that we all receive, claiming that if you don’t personally respond (usually by giving money), the world will be destroyed. These come from political entities, religious groups and often those who have a product you simply must buy immediately (or else!)
Unless the email/text/call/mailer connects to the mega-problem (or problems) you have chosen to help solve, maybe ‘It don’t matter’ applies.
Peace
