Well, for me the New Year was hornless, hatless, and champagne-less.
Instead, as some crud that's been going around here in Valdosta thankfully got
only a slight hold on me New Year's Eve, I welcomed the new year with coughs,
sneezes, and achiness. Thank goodness for Drambui. It beats Tamaflu going
away. Anyway, I was reading an article in USA TODAY by an anthropologist at
Vanderbuilt, Edward Fischer. He says in the article, something I learned about
25 years ago: "For a long time we defined well-being by income. Now what we
have come to realize is it really involves all these other things....I think we
get on that treadmill and we think that a little more money, a little better
car, a little nicer house, that's what's going to make us happy...If we let
those things define us, I think it's ultimately disappointing."
Ain't that the truth. How many of us have said, “If only I had ____,
then I’d be really happy.” Maybe that explains why our campuses, or the rest
of our lives, are fraught with overwhelming fear and anxiety, as we run various
forms of the rat race. So, I'll make this quick and simple. Someone once
said, "You can’t buy happiness; you can’t wear it; you can’t drive it, or drink
it, or sell it, or steal it. You can’t lock it away. You can’t negotiate for
it. You can’t win it, you can’t marry it, you can’t inherit it, you can’t cheat
it. You can’t smoke it, or inject it, or rent it or borrow it. You can’t
campaign for it or beg for it, or talk other people into giving you theirs.
You only can live happiness. You can create it. You can be it. You can give it
to others. You can enjoy it. You can share it. You can claim it. You can have
as much as you wish. You can enjoy it as much as you want, at any time, under
any circumstance.
So, we ought to take care about what New Year resolutions we make.
Fischer talks of society as a whole. It's not much different in academia. If
you think tenure, renown, title, degree, and/or promotion will make you happy,
you don't have tenure, renown, title, degree, and/or that promotion. Trust me.
I had it all, and I still wasn't truly happy. I started being happy when as a
part of my epiphany I discovered that happiness is what you are, not what you
have; that happiness is not "out there;" true happiness is in me! The secret
to happiness is not in a wealth of things; it's in a richness of being.
Happiness comes from mastering the art of appreciating and consciously enjoying
what you already have. It's having a loving soul, a gentle laughter, a
generous spirit, a boundless optimism, an unending hope, and a joyous life;
it's in priceless kindness, caring, and love. So, if you want to be happy, as
that is the meaning of New Year resolutions, chase more things less. Chase
more love, more joy, more hugging, more authenticity, more honesty, more
laughter, more kindness, more love. Smile more. Hope more. Believe more.
When you decide to do that, happiness is yours.
Susie and I would to wish one and all a happy New Year filled with true
happiness.
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\
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mountains,\ /\
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hills" - / \_
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