Parental Vortex of Negativity

I don't know about you, but my parents are ones that dwell in the negative...they are more comfortable planning for the disaster than focusing on the possible, and they like it there. Now, I do love my parents dearly, but I find myself often comparing them to the on-going skit “Debbie Downer” with Rachel Dratch on Saturday Night Live.



Whenever someone has something positive to say, you can count on my parents killing the conversation with a negative point that drags the whole crowd down. I call it the "Vortex of Negativity".

For example, when I decided to leave my last job and take my current job, I told my Dad that I was going to have a leadership position and that I was really excited. His response? “You know, the people at the top get fired more often…”. Or when I told my Mom that we were putting in a pool in our back yard, her response was that kids drown in back yard pools.


(*Note: Pool of death)

Needless to say, it is a tiresome feat to be near my parents if you have a inherent positive nature about you, which I like to think I do. So, I got to thinking that I should figure out a way to get the "Vortex of Negativity" to become the "Vortex of Positivity"…but how?

I thought about the visual of a vortex and noted the swirling pattern. So if I want to "turn that frown upside down", I need to think of the vortex in reverse. Well, thank God for that degree in Chemical Engineering because I recalled the Coriolis Effect, which is just that, the view of a double sided vortex.



The Coriolis Effect is defined as (Coriolis Effect), and the most notable example of the Coriolis Effect is that the winds in the Northern Hemisphere travel in the opposite direction to the winds in the Southern Hemisphere of our dear Earth. SO, you know what this means don’t you? If I am in an opposite hemisphere from my parents (me here in Pennsylvania and them in Australia for argument’s sake) when they engage their “Vortex of Negativity” then by the time it gets to me it is, by nature of the Coriolos Effect, a “Vortex of Positivity” because the energy flows in the opposite direction! And if I am in a “Vortex of Positivity” then I am going to be happier, and want to be around my parents more often!

THEREFORE, based on the fact that my parents are so far away and considering the Coriolis Effect, this proves beyond all doubt that the age old adage is true – distance makes the heart grow fonder!