I Hope For It, But I Don't Expect It

I cited once this article from my Advanced English class book, because I agree with the idea... sometimes we suffer this syndrome of having too many expectations on something, and also because it starts with a speed skating example (and I do like speed ice skating!!)... hope you like it!

I Hope For It, But I Don't Expect It

by Jessica Taylor (Pocket Digest)

Picture the scene: It's the seventeenth Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Dan Jansen, a famous American speed skater, is about to compete in the 500-meter race. This is the fourth Olypics he has participated in; in the first three, he missed winning any medals, but this will be his last Olympic competition, so the pressure is on. About halfway through the 500, one of Dan's skates catches a rough spot on the ice, slowing him down. He wins no medal at all. Three days later, Dan competes in the 1,000-meter race. Everyone knows this is his last chance for a medal. Some observers have already written him off. Dan starts off well. As he is coming around a turn, though, his skate again hits a rough spot on the ice, and he almost falls. But this time he says to himself that he's just going to keep skating and let what happens happen. In effect, he "casts his fate to the winds". The result? Dan sets a world record and wins the gold medal.

Picture another situation: Your two best film-buff friends have seen the reissued Citizen Kane. The rave about its superb black-and-white photography and applaud its profound, sensitive, serious treatment of the lonely life of an anxiety-ridden business tycoon. They say it's the best American movie of the century. When you go to see it, though, you feel disappointed.

These situations illustrate what we might call "the expectation syndrome". Children ofter do no meet their parents' career expectations of them. Athletes do not always win what people expect them to win. Great literature doesn't always seem as good as it should. I asked neurophysiologist Robert Stevens whether there is an actual scientific basis for the negativity of expectations or whether this is merely a philosophical question, an unpleasant, frustrating irony of the human condition.

Stevens: Well, what we're really talking about here, I think, is the immense power of the mind. For example, there is a documented medical phenomenon called focal dystonia, which is an abnormal muscle function caused by extreme concentration. Somehow, when athletes are concentrating too hard, they "short circuit" certain brain functions and miss the basket, don't hit the ball, or lose the race. So there's a physiological counterpart to what the mind manifests.

Pocket Digest: Have you ever had any experience with this phenomenon in your personal, everyday life?

Stevens: Yes, I think I have. We're learning more about the human brain all the time. It seems that the mind has immense power for both positive and negative things. Let me give you an example from skiing. There are days when, as a cautious, high-intermediate skier, I stand at the top of a steep, icy slope, plotting my every move down the course, fearing that I'll fall. Sure enough, I do fall. Other days I feel different. My expectations are miles away. I ski well and don't fall. When we focus excessively on goals, our expectations tend to take over, and our mind places us outside the process. On the other hand, when we concentrate on the process instead of the goal, we're often much more successful. Have you heard the phrase "trying too hard"?

Pocket Digest: Very interesting. What would be your recommendation about expectations, then?

Stevens: Well, all I've been able to come up with so far is that it's better to hope for things than to expect them.

Guilty Conscience

When I was 7 years old, I started going to Sunday School of the Protestant church with my grandmother. Everyone else in my family were Catholics, with the exception of my grandmother and my uncle Alejo. I still remember the first class, when the teachers started talking about the kingdoms that were in Palestine in Jesus' time. I also remember the taunts of my peers when I answered the question of which nationality Jesus Christ had, to which I replied "Palestinian" when the correct response by the teachers should be "Jewish." My statement was not wrong if we realize the region was called Palestine, and that included the territories of Judea, Perea, Samaria, Iturea, Galilee and the Decapolis, the general adjective to be used with its inhabitants as the "Palestinians" and I did not hesitate to discuss this with the teacher, who accepted my argument and after all gave me an award.

One of my favorite works is "Ivanhoe" by Walter Scott. It talks about the adventures of a Saxon Knight of the English court, a favorite of Richard the Lionheart, who returns from the Holy Land after going to the Crusades with the king and confronts his French nemesis Brian de Bois-Guilbert in the tournament of Ashby-la-Zouche. Aside of mentioning several specific aspects of the Middle Ages, this book recounts the widespread hatred that the Jews suffered at the hands of Christians. At that time, the Jews preferred to live in lands ruled by the Saracens, under a tax payment, but allowed freely to do and undo.

It is well known the situation in the Middle East today. The Zionist movement led by Theodore Herzl proposed the creation of a new Jewish state in the territory formerly known as Canaan back in the days of Moses, where obviously already were Muslim settlements. Obviously, after the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis in World War II, the dream of Herzl were concretized in 1948 due to the creation of Israel. The problem is that many Palestinians (both Arabs and Christians) were displaced in favor of such action, which has been the germ of all the wars between the fledgling Jewish state and its Moslem neighbors.

This topic is it up since a few days ago, I learned that the owner of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, a Zionist, expressed in a private meeting his personal thinking about the Arab-Israeli conflict. From there, it sparked a controversy and several Internet sites invited to boycott the coffee chain vending based on allegations that the owner supports counterterrorism measures exercised by the Israeli state in the territory of the Palestinian National Authority, which are not always advertised in the West, as well as those exercised by Hamas and Hezbollah.

My loyalty was in conflict, and that my relationship with Starbucks has been fairly close, and since that first time I tried a Toffee Nut Latte in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I have done a fair share of unusual things to consume precious liquid toffee nut-flavored, with a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon and chocolate and 2 packets of Splenda. I walked more than seven blocks from the Holiday Inn Select to the nearest Starbucks in Tulsa, I walked through the whole Houston Airport Starbucks branch located in Terminal C (I even saw the statue of former President George Bush). I've burned the tongue by the contact of hot coffee drink in Greenville, SC. My attraction to coffee is not new: from my grandfather, the Migration Agent Rodolfo Rustrián Sr. (RIP) I inherited the attraction towards this liquid (even though I have not reached the point of sipping it alone, without sugar). Maybe my obsession with the product sold by the Seattle chain is not a fashion product, or the snobbery that many individuals have to be seen holding the cup with the famous logo.

I do not take sides with anyone.... it is painful the situation of Jewish-Palestinian conflict and more when I have friends on both sides. I only say that war solves nothing. Because before the claims of the Palestinians will be other Jews who have also suffered terrorist attacks from the others. Overall, the seed of Jacob and Esau will always at war.

That reminded me that some of yesterdays ago, I received emails asking them not to buy products and Procter & Gamble because the owner of the company is worshiping Satan ... And not for that reason have I stopped brushing my teeth with Crest (I have not). The truth is that we do not know in general how the money will go to pay for the provision of a service or purchasing a product. And for us to be questioning the actions carried with them resulting in a collective paranoia is not healthy. Therefore, one of these days I went to Starbucks Revolution in Monterrey, Mexico with two of my best friends without any remorse and asked my Toffee Nut Latte with a simple pawini. The time I spent with them was worth any questioning by anyone... I just pray to God to give clarity of thought to those who try to make a crime against humanity with what I paid for my delicious liquid toffee-nut flavored, with a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon and chocolate and 2 packets of Splenda, as always.