"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking." That's a quote from Marcus Aurelius. Best known as a stoic philosopher, he was also a Roman Emperor! Out of the two, I'd rather be known as a stoic philosopher. Still, if he wasn't Emperor, I doubt we would know him as a philosopher at all. Why is it we remember the names of generals and politicians that led to the death and suffering of thousands of people, yet never know the names of common people who did incredible things?
The answer to that last question is likely the quote! Think about it, billions of people have lived since the beginning of time. I am certain that many of them lived overly happy lives. Some of them may have been brutally short, but happy nonetheless. What makes for happiness? Do you need to be a stoic philosopher or a Roman Emperor? I think not. And what about Marcus Aurelius himself? He seems to have lived half his life as emperor on campaign, killing people. Does THAT make for a happy man? For a man who espoused a philosophy of service and duty, probably. Think about that. Service and duty. Does a man owe service to anyone but himself or his family? What is a person's true duty? And who decides that? Do we owe service to the state? Why? Most large "states" have become corrupted over time. Should we serve corruption? I believe the best service we can do for someone is to teach them how to think. Not what to think, mind you, but HOW to think. Too many people seem to go through life without taking their individual actions to their logical conclusions. I will smoke a cigarette now, because I like the feeling that the nicotine gives me. Multiply this actions by the thousands of times that may happen over a lifetime and you have a good chance of getting lung cancer. I am not just getting down on smokers here folks. What about the person who relaxes with a beer? Or the person who calms their fears with a doughnut? My wife drank herself to death. Esophageal varacies to be exact. She had first gotten esophageal varacies and was told she needed to stop drinking or she was going to die. She stopped for a while, but her addiction got the best of her, and she eventually went back to drinking and died from it. She isn't the only one. Others have been diagnosed with diabetes and kept eating sugary snacks. They figure, this one doughnut won't kill me...never thinking that it isn't the one, but the compilation of the many. That last example was my Dad. My Dad taught me many things, but the one lesson that had a huge impact on me is a lesson he never knew he taught me. Watching him die from the complications from his diabetes taught me that that is not how I want to go out of this world. By the time he passed, my Dad was taking about seventeen pills a day, He had numerous heart operations, he had had toes amputated and he was on dialysis. His last couple of years were very tough on him. I sometimes wonder if he had ever thought past the pleasure of that doughnut, or that full sugar soda, to what they may cause later. When I was younger, I never thought past the immediate pleasure. I started to look past it, originally when I was in college and I saw how my grades were suffering from a lack of study and too much drinking. I put myself in AA then, to help get past my problem and get my grades back. I did it, eventually. I graduated in five years, but sadly went back to "casually" drinking. Essentially, I was a functional alcoholic. I finally stopped once my wife (then my girlfriend) confessed that she was an alcoholic and asked me to help her stop. I quit right then and tried to help her to do the same. Unfortunately, she was never able to stop and fourteen years later she was dead. Seeing what was happening to my Dad started me on a road to eating healthier. I read up on diabetes and sent him articles trying to educate him on the disease and help him to make changes to his lifestyle that would help him. I don't think he read any of them. I did read, them, though, and made changes to my own lifestyle to help me not to follow in his footsteps. At one time, my blood tests showed that I was just a tad below being considered pre-diabetic. That scared me. I went on a diet and lost weight. I cut out bread and pasta and most sugary snacks and treats. (I occasionally eat a coffee roll or pretzels...hey I am not perfect!). The end result is that I have lost sixty-five pounds and my blood tests have improved to where my levels are at dead center for healthy blood sugar levels. It is a struggle to stay on a low-card diet, particularly when the cook at my house thinks that it is all bullshit. I have tried to give her the literature, but she says she is too old and busy to read it. Thinking past the comfortable is one of the signposts on the way to happiness. The more areas in your life where you can force yourself to think past the comfortable, the happier you will be. Poison with a lump of sugar in it is still poison. There are better ways to relieve stress than to eat or drink yourself to death. We all have our weaknesses. Better to recognize them for what they are and then find ways to combat them. This post has drifted away from where I originally intended for it to go. I think this message is important, though, so I hope you can read between the lines. Life is what you make it. You will make it more by thinking. I usually write these blogs for my daughters, Today, I have written it for them, but also for three other people. Two likely won't read it unless I ask them to. Even then, I am not certain they will read it...or if they do, they won't see the message as pertaining to them. The third person likely will read it. I hope she can think through it and see the deeper message.
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