For you Louis Grizzard fans, you’ll recognize the title. How are you supposed to feel, from day to day that is? Should you always be happy? Don’t we all think something is wrong with people who are too happy all the time? Given the opportunity, wouldn’t those of us in foul moods gather torches, form a mob, and hunt them down like Frankenstein or drive a stake through their hearts like Dracula? Why is that? “Can’t we all just get along?”…What makes us want to beat the happiness out of those with terminal happy happy joy joy syndrome, with a stick, when we aren’t feeling that way? Shouldn’t we all be on an even keel most of the time, somewhere in between happy and sad, sailing through the sea of life in fair weather? Lately, I find that my moods have been a bit more chaotic, more like a roller coaster. Minus of course, the high priced admission to a theme park, or the excitement of actually riding the damn thing. Not exactly something that I enjoy. How do you, even the keel when this happens? Well, I’ve learned that “Happiness is a choice.” There are thing that you actually need to worry about, and those that are beyond your control. I think that I and probably most people for the most part, worry way too much about those things that we have no control over. There is a good book, titled “Don’t sweat the small stuff…and it’s all small stuff.” Big print, not hard to read, and makes a lot of sense. In fact, it’s so popular, that there are all kinds of offshoots from it…for teacher, business men/woman, etc. of course there are things in life that will make you unhappy deaths of family or friends, breakups, things like that. But those are all temporary situations and should be thought of as such. All ships experience weather from time to time. And the crew must pay extra attention to the little thing that will see the ship through this temporary situation. I guess what it all boils down to is, enjoy the fair weather when possible, but have your slicker suit ready for the rain and wind. And whatever you do, stay away from the railing when the ship roles with the swells, because “Man Overboard” is a lot harder situation to deal with than riding out a little rough weather. So keep your eye on the horizon, close eye on your bearings and for god sakes, and put away those torches and wooden stakes. Let the terminally happy run free, they could give you a nice laugh.
