“David, Nobody Cares!”

The other day, a friend referred to the quote from Schitt’s Creek, “David, Nobody Cares!”

She was talking about her anxiety in the past about wearing a bathing suit and the decision to let it go and have fun with her kids. Besides the focus on living in the moment and not letting our anxieties ruin simple pleasures, this post reminded me about Alexis’ point with this statement, “people aren’t thinking about you, the way you are thinking about you.”

It got me thinking about how this statement relates to so many things in life.

As a person who easily finds myself in my head too often, getting a PhD on rumination, trying to grab onto the space (life) outside of my head, but ending up grasping on to the side of my brain, and slipping back into the basin, whether I like it or not, reminding myself that “David, Nobody Cares!”, is a worthwhile thing to do.

This line of thinking has helped me in the past. I used to have great anxiety about public speaking. In some situations, it’s still not the most natural thing for me to do (although, I have discovered a love for facilitating certain discussions). I don’t remember where this nugget of wisdom came from, but someone said, “When you walk into a room and you are nervous – when you are thinking about how you are perceived, everyone else – they are doing the same thing. They are not thinking about you. They are thinking about how THEY are perceived.

When I find myself wondering if my forehead frown line has deepened or if my chin is starting sag or if I should re-consider my decision to avoid Botox – “David, Nobody Cares!”

When I wonder if I should eat the thing or not (bagel, sour kids, noodles, etc.) – “David, Nobody Cares!”

When I finish a great long run, let’s be honest, it feels great for me but – “David, Nobody Cares!”

When I am annoyed that the driver is still moving while I’m crossing the street and they should know better, and what is wrong with drivers these days? – “David, Nobody Cares!”

When I am lamenting my life career choices and considering what I should do about them. These are very important questions for me and worthwhile for me to spend some time considering, but really other people – “David, Nobody Cares!”

When someone asks whether I am running the half or the full marathon and I feel the need to say “The half, but I have run the full, twice” – “David, Nobody Cares!”

When I am wondering whether I should continue wearing my mask in certain places. There may be some people who care, but on the whole, we have reached the stage of the pandemic where – “David, Nobody Cares!”

What people care about is how you make them feel. How present you are when it counts. They will remember the time they laughed with you. They will remember the time you did something that helped them believe in themselves a bit more. Hopefully, they will remember some of the tasty food I made for them. They will not remember the superficial things that we have been socialized to care about and which may continue poking our brains, and trying to sap our energy, in spite of our best efforts to ignore them.

So, the next time you are feeling stressed about something you know really isn’t important, perhaps it will help you too, to remind yourself that “David, Nobody Cares!”