Ob-la-de

I heard Ob-la-de, Ob-la-da on the radio the other day. It was the favorite song of a friend and a mentor who passed away, way too young. It reminded me that our lives could be snatched away from us at any time, just like that, in the blink of an eye.

I spent the next few days thinking about that, and thinking about the very real possibility that cancer could take my life at anytime. I thought about how I should be living and what I should be doing. It is easy to think, if I had a year to live I would quit my job, move to a tropical island and spend my remaining days soaking up the sun and drinking tropical drinks out of coconut shells with those little umbrellas in them.

But I don’t think that is the answer. I think enjoying life is much more of an continual attitude than where you are at or even what you are doing. It is breathing life in and consciously extracting as much love and joy out of every moment you can and leaving as much of the bad along the wayside

I remember a Dateline NBC special I watched on what is happiness. They asked children, what is happiness and what makes you happy. I remember one little girl had the answer. When asked why she was so happy, she simply stated, because I want to be! Is it really that simple? Choosing to be happy. Choosing to look at the good instead of the bad. Easier said than done. I start my day off right with a good attitude and by noon and 10 phone calls later my good attitude is waning. Add a few depressing news stories, 3 barking dogs, 2 screaming kids and a drama queen “in a pear tree“ (sorry it just flowed) but you get the picture. My good attitude is shot down and life takes over.

So happiness hangs over us like the ever eluding carrot dangled in front of the donkey. But maybe the donkey has it right. He keeps his eye on the carrot and keeps trudging along contently, not worrying about the number of packs on his back or how far he has left to go.

I guess what I am saying here is that the secret to happiness is being childish and acting like an ass, perhaps not one of my better analogies, but Dave would have approved.

And just so you know, midget tossing is still illegal in Florida. RIP

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply