Is attitude everything?  If it’s not everything, certainly studies prove it’s more than nothing.  The old messages of yore, ‘Turn your frown upside down,’ or the classic Disney anthem, ‘It’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…’ might just be more powerful than we realize.

    Is your glass half empty or half full?  Do you look for the silver lining, and if you do look, are you then able to see it, to recognize it, when it’s right in front of you? Think about it. If you don’t look,  then truly, how can you see?  Is contentment a choice?  Can we,  simply by what we choose to believe, to perceive, consider ourselves to be the luckiest person in the world? 

    They say happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.  Take the current state of the economy here as an example.  Is there an attitude floating now that suggests something on the order of, oh shucks, if the economy were more stable at present,  then certainly we’d all feel better?  I don’t mean to trivialize the impact here, in any small or large way.  I know things are shaky for some folks, and even shakier for others.  But in terms of joy, can this current economic climate really be a barometer of bliss?  No, is what I say.

    Late last week the cover of USA Today ran a color photo of a father and son watching the Red Sox on TV.  The caption below the photo quoted the dad saying something to the effect of, ‘Hey, with the cost of getting our fannies into the seats at the games these days, it’s just as easy to watch the game on TV.’  I get that going to a ballgame is exciting.  Seeing your heroes up close and personal is a big deal.  But staying at home, father and son, and maybe the family dog, with the ballgame on television, how is that a bad thing?  Is it?  Again, I say no. 

    It’s the small moments that make up a life, not the big ones.  Yeah, there will be cutbacks in many lives.  And more significant cutbacks in others.  What I’m talking about here is the ordinary, the mundane.  Is it really suffering to pack a picnic, and bring the frisbee to the park because funds might be a little too tight at the moment to take the kids to Disney World for the weekend?  And big sigh here, should we rethink the limo ride at the thirteen year olds birthday party this year, what with gas prices and all?  Oh, and ps - sorry kids, no new Wii fit game either, you’re going to have to make do - you’ll just have to go outside and throw a ball around in the yard.

    Suffering?  Doesn’t sound like it to me.  Sounds like back to normal, or maybe just closer to what everyday normal maybe should feel like again.  How did most of us survive our upbringings without video games, computers and cell phones?  Growing up,  I don’t remember feeling like things were too much, or not enough.  I remember feeling a general sense of making do, and that felt like plenty.