Schwalbe opens up Continental Drift awaiting the second scan results of his mother since her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Because she previously reacted badly to one of her Chemo Drugs, the results for the test weren’t expected to be as good as the first test. But Schwalbe inserts his take on changing expectations, and retells a story he was told in college. It’s about a man who joined the CIA right out of Yale during the Korean War and was captured. He had realized he would have to spent time in jail and was praying for anything less than five years. He was kept for two years in solitary confinement before being sentenced. His sentence was to be read along with the other prisoners. The man heard the first three sentences: death. And all of a sudden he prayed for life in prison, and was ecstatic when that was what he received (147). The role expectations can play in life is discussed throughout this chapter as well as the next.
I loved how Schwalbe illustrates the beauty of changing your expectations. After recounting the story of the man who was sentenced to life to his mother. His mom smiled and said “finding no more tumors would be great news.” This immediately changed the family’s perspective and it was powerful. Being able to look at the best case scenario in that type of situation is extremely powerful. It reminds me of a movie I recently saw called Unbroken.
It’s about Louis Zamperini an Olympian and WWII soldier who is involved in a plane crash. He is stranded out at sea with two other soldiers, with no food and only two emergency water canteens. They are floating on an emergency boat and the odds are totally against them. I can remember trying to imagine what that would actually be like. Having to totally battle your mind day in and day out in order to survive. While being stranded out in sea is a little bit different than knowing you have cancer, I believe the mindset is the same, knowing death is approaching at a greater rate than normal is a scary thing. And being able to live life as Mary Anne is extremely powerful. Her changed perception is her key to living.
What is something that you’ve experienced that wasn’t what you’d expected it to be? Did your perspective change after you experienced something you didn’t expect? How could changing your perspective positively affected that situation? =
Last Saturday I went to San Francisco, as I was driving across the Bay Bridge I realized it looked extremely gloomy. I had prepared for rain, but not that much. As I reached my destination which was Crissy Field, the beach that overlooks the Golden Gate, rain started to pour from the sky. Large amounts of water screamed down on me and my roommates. We initially were pissed and annoyed, standing in it for a minutes in hopes that it would slow down, but it definitely wasn’t going to let up. One of us started laughing and from that moment forward we all seemed to have embraced the rain. Although it was initially a bad thing, we were able to shift ourselves in alignment with what is, and made it a good thing. Changing our perspective allowed us to have equally if not a better day in San Francisco had we been upset with the rain. The ultimate fulfilment I believe is progress.
I loved how Schwalbe illustrates the beauty of changing your expectations. After recounting the story of the man who was sentenced to life to his mother. His mom smiled and said “finding no more tumors would be great news.” This immediately changed the family’s perspective and it was powerful. Being able to look at the best case scenario in that type of situation is extremely powerful. It reminds me of a movie I recently saw called Unbroken.
It’s about Louis Zamperini an Olympian and WWII soldier who is involved in a plane crash. He is stranded out at sea with two other soldiers, with no food and only two emergency water canteens. They are floating on an emergency boat and the odds are totally against them. I can remember trying to imagine what that would actually be like. Having to totally battle your mind day in and day out in order to survive. While being stranded out in sea is a little bit different than knowing you have cancer, I believe the mindset is the same, knowing death is approaching at a greater rate than normal is a scary thing. And being able to live life as Mary Anne is extremely powerful. Her changed perception is her key to living.
What is something that you’ve experienced that wasn’t what you’d expected it to be? Did your perspective change after you experienced something you didn’t expect? How could changing your perspective positively affected that situation? =
Last Saturday I went to San Francisco, as I was driving across the Bay Bridge I realized it looked extremely gloomy. I had prepared for rain, but not that much. As I reached my destination which was Crissy Field, the beach that overlooks the Golden Gate, rain started to pour from the sky. Large amounts of water screamed down on me and my roommates. We initially were pissed and annoyed, standing in it for a minutes in hopes that it would slow down, but it definitely wasn’t going to let up. One of us started laughing and from that moment forward we all seemed to have embraced the rain. Although it was initially a bad thing, we were able to shift ourselves in alignment with what is, and made it a good thing. Changing our perspective allowed us to have equally if not a better day in San Francisco had we been upset with the rain. The ultimate fulfilment I believe is progress.