Keep Marching

Life and that other thing that follows it are mysterious in many ways. Perhaps the biggest mysteries are the timing and ultimate cause of one's death. If you spend too much time anticipating your demise, you will only hasten it. Military veterans who were wounded in battle frequently die from a very civilian disease. Those who concentrate on nutrition, fitness, and wellness may reach their end through an unforeseen accident. As I see it, the only comfortable way to look toward the thing that comes after life is to avoid looking toward it at all. Like those old vets who follow the color guard in the Fourth of July parade, just keep marching. We all know there's a big IF in l-IF-e, but don't concentrate on the risks. Be creative and accomplish something for as long as you possibly can. Those veterans have the right idea.

The Secret of a Great Life

Many people have said that the secret of a great life can be found in the Bible. This turns away many folks who may not be religious and who under no conditions would consider becoming a Bible scholar. I'm going to make it easy for all of you. I say that the secret of a great life may be found in the first five words of the Bible! Do you think you can handle that much studying? The first five words are: In the beginning God created... The secret of a worthwhile life is to be like God and create. You may create anything that is in your sphere of interest, but to emulate God, your creation must be constructive rather than destructive. Further, this should not be a one-time thing! You have to try to be creative in every situation throughout your whole life. The one-great-joke-comedian doesn't make it. Neither does the inventor who had one great idea at age twenty, and then spends the rest of his life bragging about that invention, even when it becomes decades-old technology. Every day can contain at least a little creativity: a new recipe variation, whistling a made-up tune, a prayer aimed at a stranger, a neater arrangement for your room, a kind word for someone who feels depressed, a puzzle solved, a few sentences or paragraphs toward a new story or book. Center your thinking on creativity, and you will soon add some zing to your daily routines. It's not variety, but rather creativity that is the spice of life.

Make Her Happy

I saw a billboard today from a jewelry store which showed a woman with a big smile on her face and had the caption, "Make her happy". My first question was whether you can really buy a woman's happiness with a glittery piece of jewelry that has no function (unless you want to cut a piece of glass). This triggered my second question: Why do advertisers try to sell things to make women happy while they never advertise about happiness as a goal when they are selling things to men? If men and women are supposed to be treated equally, how did happiness get to be more of a feminine goal than a masculine one? Can you buy happiness at all? Perhaps the problem is that advertisers are not talking about true happiness. It is even possible that men and women have different interpretations of what happiness is, and they may not even realize when they have achieved it because of a deficient contentment gene. I guess our forefathers (and foremothers) were right in setting the official goal as the "pursuit of happiness". If at first you don't succeed, try, try again...