You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away. You know, that song was written by Charles Mitchell.
At the time, supposedly, he was a registrar of voters and he wrote it with Jimmy Davis. Apparently, famous man went on to be governor of Louisiana twice. But they suggest through their song that we should aspire for, of course, happiness as much as possible. But we know that we can’t be happy everyday. So what do we do?
Well, we obviously have to build up our store of happiness. So when we have those days of great despair, great sadness that we can think back in our memory to happier times. We gotta remember the good times because there’s gonna be a lot of hard times, isn’t there? Because life is hard, especially if we want to achieve something in this life. I think it’s relatively simple if you think to yourself at the beginning of life.
I want nothing from this life. Nothing. I just wanna thump along and see what happens and then die and be replaced by another individual. Now this has happened, of course, throughout history for millions and millions of people, but we’re different. Why are we different?
Well, I think we live in the age of everything, don’t we? And we know everything. Through our cell phone, through the technology, we can see all the possibilities that really exist. And then it’s up to me. If I’m truly willing to put an effort into my life, I can achieve something.
Can’t I? I mean, we all know this. This is nothing original at all. I can achieve something in my life. I can find a modicum of happiness if I’m really willing to struggle because life is hard like I said earlier.
So what do I do? Well, I think at the very beginning, we have to be somewhat quiet for a period of time and thoughtful. We have to reflect on why am I here, me, the frail me. Given whatever body type I have, whatever sex I have, whatever ethnicity, whatever race I have, whatever society I’m born into, country, etcetera. Me.
The unique me. Why am I here? And I think if we sit back for a moment and we’re a thoughtful being, we will realize I’m here for a reason. It’s just not some arbitrary error that I ended up to be on this planet. Because I could have been really a cockroach or I could have been a rock or I could have been a spider or a snake.
Another human being, but I am me, the unique me. There is no one like me. There never has been and there never will be. But then we come to the next point. What is my mission?
Well, I don’t know. How could I possibly know? This is where we have, of course, the notebook. We have to begin to talk to the self. Who’s my teacher?
My self. I must learn to talk to me. No choice. And once again, this is not revolutionary. It’s just the truth.
The stoics, for instance, and many philosophers tell us that this is what we have to do. We need those moments of introspection, self analysis, doubt and we have to be a critic of the self because we can’t say, I’m perfect. Look at me. I’m so beautiful. I’m so smart.
Only the fool does that because we have a lot to grow, don’t we? And then, at about 20 or 25 or 30 years old, I will uncover my mission. Now, it could potentially be the wrong mission. I’m fooling myself initially. I think perhaps I should go on a certain path when it undoubtedly is a totally goes in a totally different direction.
But I think through prayer, introspection, trial and error, I will discover, wait a moment, my wrong path. You know, a long time ago, many years ago, I was sick in an evening and I thought I would just stop for a moment and talk to a physician. So there happened to be a doctor’s office still open. It’s about 8:30, 9 o’clock. It’s quite late.
So I went into this doctor’s office. They were very gracious. Took me in as a patient and then I sat down for a bit. The doctor’s speaking with me. People like to chat, you know, and so I find out he’s got 2 daughters and etcetera etcetera.
So I say to him, gosh. You must love being a doctor. And he looked at me with wide eyes and shocked. Really? I thought I’d really offended him.
And he said, what are you talking about? I hate being a doctor. I should’ve been a lawyer like my wife. I was just stunned. And then he offered me medicine and I very graciously refused because I was afraid.
I thought to myself, my god almighty, would you take medicine from a doctor who hates being a doctor? And I said to myself, why at some point wouldn’t you have realized that your mission was not to be a doctor and get out of it? Why would you spend 6 or 7 years educating yourself at something that you hated? Sounds crazy. Doesn’t it?
Truly crazy. So what is my mission? I must find out what it is. And then the final question, of course, is what happens when I leave here? What happens when I leave here?
Where do I go? I must discover my own peace with God and I certainly give no advice in this area because this is an individual journey here for sure. But I think the point is that as we go along this path of life, we need to remember those magical moments of sunshine because we’re gonna have a lot of dark days, aren’t we? For sure. Those moments of sunshine, those lost romantic feelings, those perhaps moments that we were just so wonderful are going to steal us for the journey forward And then we can proceed and then we will live the contented life that all of us deserve.
But like Aristotle tells us, happiness is a journey to the ultimate end, to infinity. So please plan to enjoy those magical days when the sunshine just washes over us. And you’d know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary, especially when you want to bask in the sunshine of the moment, and critical thinking is great. It’s truly great. Please take care. God bless. Bye bye.