For those of you who do not know, I recently completed my law degree and just finished taking the bar exam. I spent most of the last three years sleeping in my car while at law school and I can tell you every gas station in Lansing that has a clean restroom with a changing table and hot water. I closed down the library many weekends and only missed one of my childrens' school related events during law school. I was awarded Outstanding Adult Learner by the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Currently, while waiting for bar results, I clerk for a local court and do research for two retired judges who serve as visiting judges in various jurisdictions. I was fortunate enough to be asked to draft a memo for the Ohio Supreme Court last April. I will be working with a former professor developing a Christian rights law and policy center.
My best accomplishment is my family and hopefully the law degree will keep the kids in clothes and food, the bank and student loan officers at bay and put a little money in the bank for an annual vacation. My children are my pride and joy and my bride is the love of my life. I could not have succeeded the last three years without their support and understanding.
People constantly ask what kind of law I want to practice. If any of you watched Forrest Gump, I am that feather that drifts about at the beginning and end of the movie. G-d is the wind, and he carries me and sustains me. I walk by faith and I can tell you from personal experience that their are miracles all around us, if we have eyes to see them, and G-d never closes a door without opening a window.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
What is the secret to happiness?
A basic question, what is the secret to happiness?
While philosophers have pondered this question for centuries the answer is pretty basic and one probably conveyed, hopefully by your parents or grandparents. If not, I will disclose the "secret" right here.
1) Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and your cry alone. No one likes a cry baby.
2) Idle hands are the devil's tools. Stay busy.
3) Money does not grow on trees. Be thrifty.
4) G-d gave you one mouth and two ears, use them proportionally.
5) If all the other kids jumped off the roof, would you do it, too? Don't follow the crowd.
Here is a thought, track how many statements you make about yourself every day for a week. The next week, see how many questions you can ask others about themselves. Now, which week was more satisfying and rewarding? We have all engaged in persons who bring every single conversation back full circle to them. Within ten minutes you want to leave the room, run, or you have secret desires involving a stapler and his or her mouth.
Money does not buy happiness but living within one's budget does keep worry and stress at bay. Many personal problems revolve around economic distress. My father had one credit card and he kept it paid off every month. A car depreciates faster than anything you buy. I constantly incur the jibbing of my friends because I drive junkers. I rarely spend more than a grand on a car, I drive it until the wheels fall off, and then get another. Character is not based upon things or status symbols. Character is the good you do for others when no one else is watching.
Many Americans aimlessly glom onto the latest quick fix that guarantees happiness. Society and Madison Avenue gladly encourage materialistic pursuits. After 9/11, our own President told us to “Go Shopping”, as if that would make everything normal and make us all feel better. Sadly, since World War II, our country has spent more, saved less and utilized credit more than anytime in our history. As individuals, we all own more cars, appliances, and have bought more things on credit than ever any time previous. All this purchasing and all these things supposedly guarantee happiness and make life easier.
Sadly, we have felons, open adulterers, and perverts of every stripe making millions as celebrities. Our society, using its newly embraced secular and morally relativistic standard, accepts their egregious behavior. Emulation of drunkards, the promiscuous and the hedonists are encouraged and their tabloid existence celebrated. Seemingly, the more infamous a celebrity becomes, the greater is their attraction. By all appearances, the bible verse, “Judge not, lest ye be judged” has replaced that the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and all of Deuteronomy. It would not surprise me if we soon saw a reality show that solely consists of Tiger Wood’s mistresses as the cast. Monica Lewinski will surely host the show as Jezebel-in-Chief. If anyone dares and publicly criticizes these behaviors, society automatically deems that them prudish, a Pollyannas or the worst of all, gasp, judgmental. Winston Churchill once famously asked Lady Astor if she would sleep with him for a million dollars to which she said, “Yes”. When he later asked her if she would sleep with him for five dollars, she said, “What do you think I am?” He said, “We have already established that, and now we are dickering about the price.” Today, society forms its opinions regarding personal worth predicated upon the dollars in a person’s bank account, morals and personal conduct regardless.
When it is all said and done, someone or something can take away your money, home, or possessions. They cannot take away your character, love of others, or education.
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