Monday, November 8, 2010

The Ten "Unchangeables"

Several weeks ago toward the conclusion of an eight-week session I took in Middle Eastern Dance (aka bellydancing), a girl in the class decided to share a great mental stress she has been carrying around for quite some time. "My belly button is way too high on my body!!!!"

Huh? I guess I had never stopped to consider that aspect. But then I thought, "How much time do we spend stressing out about things we didn't choose & can't necessarily change?"

Many, many years ago when I was in elementary school, my family participated in a seminar that outlined 10 things we were never given a choice about (note: these are technically called the Ten Unchangeables and some can argue the changeability of some of these, but that's really not my point). We learned these in a song that follows the tune of "Anchors Aweigh" but unfortunately, I don't believe the seminar-giving organization believes in YouTube (and would probably not be happy about bellydancing). Despite that, the list is pretty good & outlines the things in life that we were never given an initial choice about.
  1. Parents
  2. Physical Features
  3. Gender
  4. Brothers & Sisters
  5. Birth Order
  6. Ethnicity
  7. Place of Origin
  8. Time in History
  9. Mental Capacity
  10. Aging & Time of Death
So why stress? Those are 10 more things we don't have to worry about.

5 comments:

  1. Anchors Away for reals? I'm going to have to hear this one.

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  2. I'll sing it for you sometime :)

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  3. The tune is actually "Anchors Aweigh", and is a Naval song about heading out to sea. Naval as in Navy and not navel as in bellybuttons or oranges. (Though I did see a can of Naval Orange soda once - oranges grown on ships, perhaps?)

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  4. Thanks Mom! Homophones strike again- duly noted & edited.

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  5. I grew up with this song! Now I teach it in schools, camps, Bible clubs, and wherever, because it is so helpful in accepting who you are as a person. It is on youtube now, as are many of the old CI songs... Thank you for reminding me!

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