Aging Capriciously

I woke up today thinking that today is the best day in the world.  There is no better time than January 1, 2024.  There has never been a day that is better than today.  It might seem foolish to you that I make such a claim.  Perhaps tomorrow, it will even sound foolish to me.  To some it will always sound foolish no matter what the future brings.  There are those who will say that I am a Pollyanna looking at the world with rose colored glasses.  Others will attribute it to a foolish optimism on my part.  Few people will see it as a statement of realism.  Certainly, it will never be possible to prove it as a statement of fact.

Yet, my view and your view largely determines what we do with our lives today and what we attempt to do in the world tomorrow.  My view of the world today will affect most of the things that happen to me today.  Tonight, when I look back on my day, I can proclaim whether I still think that it has been a great day; but in one sense that determination and proclamation was made when I woke up.

Some time ago, Karen and I were traveling to Austin, TX to visit her son Kevin.  He had found a job down there and Karen had not seen him in nearly a year.  While Karen was visiting Kevin, we stayed in a nice, rented motel with a kitchenette.  One morning, I went to the local Walmart to pick up some deli items for lunch.  There was a young man behind the counter, and we greeted each other.  He sounded very cheerful.  I asked him if he was having a nice day.  He replied, “I am always having a nice day.”  I said, “Oh, you must be feeling healthy and happy when you can make such a statement.”  He said, “No, I don’t need to be healthy.  I get up each morning and if I am alive, healthy, or not, I am going to have a nice day.”  I left with my bag of groceries, but I could not forget this young man’s attitude.  Neither health nor working at a rather low paying job was going to negatively affect his view of life and the world.  I have always thought that a nice day was one where I woke up feeling healthy, but he took it a step further.  For this young man, a nice day was one where he simply woke up.  You can’t get more positive than that.

When you believe that the world feels wonderful, it changes your whole perspective on life.  On the days when I can grasp this thought, there is no other place that I want to be.  Things are going just right, all is well.  I feel healthy, happy, and contented.  I am not unhappy with the right wing or left wing or chaos anywhere in the world.  I am not condemning any politicians or railing at injustices in the world.  I can just accept the world for what it is.  It is a wonderful feeling.  I sometimes wish the feeling would last forever.  The philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) said, “This is the best of all possible worlds.”  Where else could I go?

If we look around us, we can see a beautiful place full of beautiful people and extraordinary places and opportunities.  Of course, we can also see the opposite if we are minded to.  We can see war, hatred, killing and violence.  It is part of human nature.  We will always have mayhem and chaos in the world.  But are we part of the problem or part of the solution?  I have been told that if we are not doing our share to end the problems of the world, why complain about them?  For those of us who hate poverty, racism, sexism, and war we must take the time and make the effort to do something about these evils.  They will never go away simply because we hate them.  But for today, this first day of the New Year of 2024, let’s try to find only the good out there.  Let us give ourselves a day off from the troubles and worries of the world.

Today, see if you can find three things that make you happy or three good things that you like about the world.  Try to be aware today of the good things in your life.  Write them down and look at them again when you wake up tomorrow.  See if you can feel why this is the best of all possible times and today is the best of all possible days.  Tomorrow will be even better.  You can make the choice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reHCmbX65WU