It is a scary time for us as a nation and I don’t mean Halloween with hyped up kids! It is the frightening question of who will win the election.

I suspect that within the week we will see a major case of blues for half of our country and zillions of tears will be shed. Regardless of who wins, many will cry and many will be afraid for the future! We are that polarized… so Boo! Are you scared yet? You should be!

If you fall into the majority of citizens, how will you handle your disappointment? If left unchecked, it can lead to depression and despair. Fun.

Life is a series of events categorized into certain chunks: Birth, school, work, and love. No matter how blessed your life is we all will eventually come face to face with disappointment. It is a way of life for some and a mystery to others.

The question I ask is, when we reach the end of our life, will we think, “Well, that was disappointing,” or will we feel completely satisfied with our life’s journey. This includes accepting that things did not always go right, but learning to grow and learn from the disappointments, the trials. We must learn to find joy amongst the misery.

Maybe we did not have the perfect life, possibly our love life never materialized or we found failure there, maybe our kids did not shine like we hoped, maybe our income level froze along the way, maybe our team never had the big season but, if we look at our journey through rose color glasses, disappointment may not affect us. Do we whine and complain? Do we grin and bear it?

Some folks live charmed lives and yet are miserable. Spoiled individuals who have a charmed existence may come to the end complaining about how it was not better. What a waste. They never really knew the value of what they were given.

Disappointment starts with expectations being out of line with reality. Sure, if we think negatively to start with we will not be disappointed. But who really wants to live expecting the worse of everything and everybody. It is like giving birth to your first born and saying, “Guess I better start saving up for that bail money!” Or… interviewing for a job and at the end say, don’t bother calling I know I did not get the job.

I think Saints’ fans are very well acquainted with disappointment. We are experts. For many years we have waited for the great season (and we came close once) but we continue to have hope every NFL pre-season. My brother and cousin will start it out with those powerful words, “Saints are going to the Super Bowl this year!” The season begins, the losses begin, the injuries begin, and we are deflated. What keeps our hope alive? The next season of course!

The worse part of being a sports fan is the expectation of something might happen and it never does. We build up our hopes in preseason and boom! It hurts us deeper when we know that we should have won games and we do not. It is almost easier going in knowing we might stink so that just a victory makes us happy. The higher our expectations, we find our satisfaction level has been raised and it’s not good enough to win a game, but win it playing well.

Dealing with disappointments in life, we have to lower the level on the bar. Sure we hope for the rich, successful offspring but let us not lift the expectations too high because he or she might not make it out of the back yard. We have to encourage success and accept reality.

We must not expect marriage to be all romantic and easy. The perfect picture in our mind needs a dose of realism. Happily ever after is a set up for unhappily divorced. Be prepared for the watered down fairy tale version because Prince Charming has faults.

Actually, these life troubles or disappointments are good for our character building. Maybe our country with all its challenges is going through character building. I want a country of good character, the kind you marry and not the “player” kind.

We must always have hope which is the best cure for disappointments.

My pastor spoke on Heaven this week and that no matter how tough life is down on Earth, for those who believe in an after life based in Heaven; it gives us something to look forward to even when we are suffering. We may be in pain here, but we believe there is no pain in Heaven.

Think of it as we may not have had a winning season this year, but in Heaven we get the Super Bowl ring! Hope gives us strength.

We do not have a consolation prize if life sucks. So make the most of what you got.

Hope is giving birth to your firstborn and putting a down payment on a luxurious retirement home.

Hope is getting married and buying your burial plots side by side because you know that is how it is going to be.

I have hope. I expect that something good is going to happen and if I am wrong, then what have I lost? Should I live with the hope of disappointment? Never.

So far, I have had my bumps in the road and I expect there will be more, but I feel satisfied that life is good.

Of course, I could be in denial.