SENTINEL WATCH March 19, 2007 ISSUE

LET'S NOT GET INTO A FLAP

TONY LOBL

FOR VARIOUS REASONS, I've recently been contemplating the idea of not getting excited. I don't mean avoiding enthusiasm about seeing a good movie, or getting a nice gift, or seeing a friend or family member I haven't seen for a while. Rather, I see a need not to let my thoughts get stirred up over scenarios for dangerous events down the line—such as the threat of a pandemic or some natural disaster.

The word excite can mean "to stimulate." And I feel it might well have been in this respect that Mary Baker Eddy used it in Science and Health, when she wrote that when it comes to disease, "The predisposing cause and the exciting cause are mental" (p. 178). Clearly, if what's in our thinking can predispose us to disease or stimulate it, we want to be watching our thoughts carefully. We wouldn't want to get "excited" in a way that brings on sickness.