I’ve got a special gift for you. I’ve been saving it actually. Do you know what it is? It’s the gift of joy and happiness. And in reality, it’s a gift that I can talk about and I can say I’m going to give to you but in reality, you’re going to have to give it to yourself.

Yourself. And when should you give yourself this gift? Well, I think a week like this week. It was a week that everything went wrong. Everything went wrong.

My phone broke. My girlfriend told me she no longer loves me. The dog died. You know what I mean. We all had these experiences.

Right? And just when we think it’s going to get a little better, it gets even worse. Even worse. And we think we’re going to pop. I can’t go on, you say to yourself.

But then you remember what Aristotle taught us, that life is a journey. We never will know what will happen until the very very end. So whatever the circumstance, push on. Push on always. A little story.

I was walking through the park the other day and just in front of me on a little hill on a little knoll were 2 beautiful little girls and they were just spinning and spinning and spinning. And they were joined by their little brother. And the 3 of them are spinning around, and I thought, what the heck? So I took my shoes and socks off and I began to spin. Now, whether that story is figurative, apocryphal, or not, the point is that we can all give ourselves joy and happiness.

And of course, it’s fleeting. It’s a moment in time, but it steals us for the great journey. Doesn’t it? So I always think to myself that joy, the gifts that I give myself are really in a series in a certain sense of the word. When I first wake up, I have the joy of gratitude.

Another day. Gosh. I’ve been given another day. And when you’re 68 years old, you might not get another day. Then I think to myself, wow.

I get my notebook and I have the joy of thought. I can write something down, some reflections. And the secret, of course, in the notebook is show no one. Those are your private thoughts. Then I go to the washroom and I shave.

I have the, perhaps, the joy of cleanliness. I like being clean shaven in the morning first thing. I go into my home. It’s in a state of order. So I have the joy of order if you will.

And then finally, as I push on, I realize I have the joy of prayer. I make a point every day of saying my prayers saying my prayers. So I think in a long and complicated life, it is extremely necessary that we reach out and reward ourselves with the gift of joy and its friend happiness as much as we possibly can. Now I’m not foolish and nor are you. Life’s a struggle.

Life is hard. And as I said at the beginning of our chat, some days, some weeks, gosh, we can’t imagine that we can finish this week without going crazy. Had an interesting chat today with a businessman and we spoke about wealth. He’s a wealthy person. And he pointed out that many wealthy people, lots of money, are not happy and he asked me my opinion.

What did I think? And I said to him, well, gosh, sir. If I was wealthy, I think I would be happy. But of course, I don’t know if that’s true either because you read in history that people that had power, that had money, they died horrible deaths many times. Right?

Just total unhappiness. And sometimes we stumble into a political movement that we think will bring society in general happiness. I mean, this was the Nazis in a bizarre sense. National Socialism. They believed Well, Hitler believed, but he wasn’t really the founder, but Hitler believed that ultimately their path forward was going to make a better Germany because the Germans already were the smartest people in Europe, the best educated at the time.

They led the world in medicine, science, art, music. I mean, gosh, the list just goes on and on and on. And after that horrible mess of the First World War, he thought that he could improve the society. And if you read their 25 point bulletin, published, I believe, in 1925, you get a really good idea what they’re going to do and they followed it out. They were going to exterminate people because they thought that somehow they were going to bring more joy to the world.

But, of course, what a abysmal failure that was. Shocking when you think of it. Right? Beyond imagination, the cruelty of these people. Right?

So I think to myself, if I’m going to give myself joy and happiness, it’s gotta be pure joy and happiness, very much in a spiritual sense, I think. And then ultimately, I will be able to push on and be a better person and be a better citizen of the world. And you know what they say. You know what they say. All of us deserve the gift of joy and happiness, and all of us need to think critically because critical thinking is great, and it’ll keep us away from bizarre political movements. I’m sure. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.