Oct 13 Happy vs Sad
Hayter for Oct 13
2024
Happy vs. Sad
I’m thinking un-seriously of
writing a book on attitude improvement. I’m still working on the title. I’m
having trouble choosing between “How to Be Happy” or “How Not to Be Sad”.
I can’t help but notice that there
are a lot of people who can’t be happy unless they’re upset about something. I
have been an example of that a time or two, but I’m getting over it. You see, I’ve
done some research on being happy. By the time I’m through here, you’ll have a
much better attitude on life. Maybe.
First of all, we must come to grips
with the notion that we will always experience some bad stuff and some good stuff.
Generally speaking, both of them don’t happen at the same time. Take Buddha,
for example. He was born in Nepal and given the name Siddhartha Gautama. His
dad was a rich and powerful ruler who spoiled his son rotten. He had everything
he wanted, except the opportunity to see the people living outside of the
Castle.
In time he left his father’s beautiful
palace and wandered all around India. In doing so, he got taste a of sadness. He
was so moved that he developed a religion known today as Buddhism. The four
largest religions as of today are Christianity with two billion followers. Islam
which is a little shy of two billion, Hinduism with about one billion, and
Buddhism with 500 million.
There are a bunch of other religions to
choose from, but the followers of practically all religions believe that after
death, your spirit is judged and if you’re good you go to a nice place forever,
and if you’re bad you go to a much worse place forever. Some believe that it’s
possible to get a reprieve from the worst place. That would be, like, better,
because eternity goes on for a long time.
It’s now time for the question, “How difficult
is it to be happy?” The Houston Texans winning a game makes me happy. If they
had lost every game so far, I’d quit worrying about them.
Perhaps a better example of happiness and
sadness comes from the fact that I enjoyed my job as a teacher, particularly
when I was in front of the class. I didn’t enjoy much of the other duties that
came along with teaching.
When I was a teacher, I had several
retired friends who told me that they were working harder than they did when
they had jobs. I was too polite to tell them that they apparently misunderstood
the word “retire.”
My type of occupation today is the
greatest role in my life. I didn’t even have it this good when I was a kid. My
biggest sadness today is when I’m sick or have to take a bath. Kay and I are
blessed as we can be, yet I still dread so many things that don’t amount to a
hill of beans. For me, happiness depends more on “where I am” than “who I am.”
And, that’s just wrong!
Among my joys in life thus far, have been
the opportunities I’ve had to act on stage. I don’t enjoy rehearsals much, but
I enjoy the play itself. It was pretty much the same with football. I hated
practice, because they ran your rear off and yelled at you for messing up. However,
playing in the actual football game was as great as being on stage as the
curtain opens.
That being said, I always had a sense of
relief after each stage play, just as I was usually pleased when football
season was over. That’s called dodging happiness. For years I wanted to be a
famous movie actor. I’m past that now. I
recently saw Harrison Ford on Jimmy Kimmel. He looked kind of sick and had trouble talking. I’d feel sorry for
him, but the guy is worth $300 million.
Clint Eastwood is 94, and he’s worth $375 million. I would assume that he
and Harrison Ford would turn loose of their wealth for a chance to be the
talent they once were. Point being, a major sadness is the realization that you
can never be the way you were.
I can’t get over the number of famous
actors who have recently passed away. Kris Kristofferson’s passing hit me hard.
He was among the best songwriters ever. He had less than an inviting voice, and
I loved it.
So far, I must assume that neither of us
has experienced the same amount of happiness. Yet, we each have hope for the time remaining.
It’s been said that “Without sadness, happiness has no meaning.” I hate that.
But I believe it.
What I learned from today’s article
was… no more than I knew when I started. Therefore, what say, I end with a
saying from Persian astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and poet Omar Khayyam? My sister, Jill, gifted me the a few lines from a poem he
wrote. She knitted it to a plastic backing. It reads:
“The moving finger writes and having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears washout a word of it.”
These
are but a few short lines of a very long poem. The message obviously makes note
of the fact that you can’t erase words already said nor actions previously
done.
The
message being that perhaps I should think through situations before acting on
them. Better now than never. -- I think I need to have Jill sew that onto a bed-sheet for me.
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