Friday 6 July 2012

July 6, 2012 Chautauqua


From the Editor's Computer

     A couple of weeks ago, as I got into my car, I heard on the radio the comment, “They turned on him because he wasn’t as worried as they were...they thought he should be miserable like them.”

   Those words stuck with me. 

   Why would you turn on someone who is not feeling or experiencing exactly what you are?

   Instead of turning on the mysterious “him,” they should have looked to him as an example.  How is he able to be calm in the present situation?  Why isn’t he miserable?  Does he know something that they didn’t?  They should have figured out how they could be more like him?

   Rather than attacking those who don’t see, or experience, a situation in the manner in which we do, we should find out why they don’t and how we can change our reactions and perceptions, because often it is only a different reaction or perception that separates someone who is calm in a situation and someone who panics in the same situation.

   One happy person in a crowd of long-faced downers should be able to shift the mood from blue to cheery.  Yet, how many times does the dejectedness of the group sucks the joy out of the individual.

   We’ve all heard, and may have even uttered, the phrase, “Misery loves company,” yet we don’t seem to apply it to happiness.  Why?

   Joy and enthusiasm love company too, and our world is a much better place when more of us are happy and enthusiastic.

Beth

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