Yellow Brick Road......

Dorothy wants to follow it.  Elton wants to get the heck off of it. Yogi Berra, suggests, when coming to the fork in the yellow brick road, "take it."

Happy.

Differn't stuff makes us happy.  To some, size matters.  Car, house, paycheck, meteoric rise during employ. All well and good and there's certainly nothing wrong with wanting the best. But (Victor, we've discussed this, you cannot begin a sentence with 'But'.)   But, when you go to recollect, alla the above ain't a prerequisite for happy.  Can help, but it ain't the end all be all.

I work with the public (golf course "I'll take your money here for golf, Cokes, beer, hot dogs, etc.")  On an average summer day, I'll see over one hundred people.  I try, but it's really difficult to remember the name of each and every one.  Often, after meeting me once, the specific person will remember, and use, my first name. On occasion, I feel sheepish, again, because I can't remember theirs.

In thinking though, there is a correlation to them using my name and how happy they are. Small, trivial perhaps - but, putting myself in their shoes, they're simply trying to comfort me, make me feel good.  Bingo. A 'check mark' to their happiness - making others feel good.

I know golf.  I ain't being braggadocios, ie, I'm truly a horrible player - but, I know, golf, LIKE life, very much lends ups and downs.  68 one day.  82 the next.  Maybe a stretch for some really good golfers, so, 68 may be an OK day, 73 would suck.  Point being, it ain't always rosy.  However, they are, always, as in, happy, in a good mood, and it's not dependent on their scorecard. 

After 5, 10, 20 times of meeting this happy person, if I happen to have a coworker standing next to me, as Mr. or Mrs. Happy comes in, I'll say (loud enough so they can hear) "Watch this guy (gal).. I think he's on drugs..he's always happy." 

Dr. Keith David.  I loved him.  He taught Logic at William Jewell College.  Aside from being a happy person, he was a darn good teacher.  When he would come to a point of emphasis, he'd turn to us and say "Dig?".... Or, maybe Mrs. Sumpter in Junior High.  Same thing, happy person. When she would get to something she'd really want us to remember, (or, if 5 of us were sleeping) should would VERY MUCH RAISE HER VOICE so we just knew, it was a point of emphasis.

The point I guess I'm trying to parlay is happy people really like life. I'm biased.  My sister was a nice person. Her daughter recently told me "I never heard her say one bad thing to me about anyone."  That's a happy person trait I'm finding. (Dig?)!!

I saw a quote recently that, to me at least, really hit home:

"You're so hard on yourself. But remember, everybody has a chapter they don't read aloud. Take a moment. Sit back. Marvel at your life; at the mistakes that gave you wisdom, at the suffering that gave you strength. Despite everything, you still move forward, be proud of this. Continue to endure. Continue to persevere.  And remember, no matter how dark it gets, the sun will rise again."

The person on the planet that knows me probably better than any one is my ex, so, after reading the above, I penned an email to her. One by one I went thru the things in my life I'd maybe hide from (again, she knows virtually every chapter)... To me, it was pretty emotional, but the end result was wonderful - as I deducted, after writing all the junk, I ain't too happy about me doing, saying many things in my past, but I still kinda like me. I am human, hear me mess up.

I Googled "What is happy"... "All about happiness".. and several things similar.  One talked about the 'key to happiness.' It pointed out "Love yourself first."  Then, offered "well that's true enough but it's not the answer to our question. No, the answer is - "Like you, first." That's right, like you. Be your best friend, and allow yourself the luxury of feeling JOY!"

And, new paragraph, they didn't stop there.  "Your best friend likes who you are right now with all your imperfections, quirks and circumstances. For true happiness, you must become your best friend before you can begin to love yourself."  Or, maybe Mrs. Sumpter would say "FOR TRUE HAPPINESS, you must become  your best friend before you can begin to love yourself."

And yes, they continued "Liking yourself means developing an attitude of contentment. When you accept your current job, accept the way you look, accept your family, accept your friends, your home, your car and all the material things you now have, truly, you know what genuine contentment is.   You have begun to love yourself and be genuinely happy."

As always, I don't write here to preach, I write here to learn, to remind me.. I use the keyboard to do so.

I reckon another way to look at it would be, as if we were receiving an award simply for being us, no matter how rich, how poor, where we live, what we drive, who we break bread with, errors made hopefully to rinse (and not repeat).. - and we write our own acceptance speech of thanks (for that.)

Funny ha ha I always wanted to write a book, and the title that keeps ringing in my ear is "I'm positive... I think."  I'm slowly learning to like me.  Maybe if/when the day comes I can look in the mirror and profess love for me, I can change that title to "I'm positive."

Life is damn hard.  There are bumps in every yellow brick road, no matter what you drive - but also periodic smooth avenues of progress.  Daily scorecards have hella peaks and valleys. There can also be great drives, pitches, chips, putts. There are forks of indecision.  There are "I want the hell outta here's"..  Full circle, as in maybe, coming back to liking, loving ourself.

There are also, thankfully, happy, happy people who are a step ahead, they've already decided to like themselves - even love themselves, and as such, they spread that love, that happiness, that Rocky Balboa you can't keep me down if you knock me down.

Victor?  Yes?  Dig?  Kinda sorta starting to. We are blessed with so many examples of happy people, I wonder if they will one day consider sharing their drugs with us.  Just kidding.  I hope they continue to rub off on us, as it's certainly a pleasure every encounter we share.

By Henry Gibson.     Forward by Stephen Stills (I'm thinking he wrote "Love the one you're with.")

Love, Victurd