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mensplace · January 13, 2010

Growing up in the fifties happiness was running through the woods where I had my magic fort
in an era when Atlanta WAS mostly old growth oaks. I was raised on the notion that we do the right things to get into college, to gain employment by a corporation, to buy the bigger and bigger house to provde fine clothes and fine cars so that your children too could have more and better and go to college to work for the corporation so that they could have the big homes and fine cars, and send their children to the fine college, ad nauseum. I well remember a debate in a marketing class re whether there IS such a thing as corporate responsibility when the ONLY role of a business was to maximize income for stockholders. Somehow, I have come a long, long way from any thoughts of being "happy" or running through the woods. Raised as a little Marine I later changed to a similar uniform that I wore for many years...IBM blue pinstripe...day after day, year after years. One day that disappeared overnight. For a year I wasn't afraid that I would die, but afraid that tomorrow would come and I would see the minutes pass day, after day, after day. One day, I remembered that I had once loved photography, so I picked up my old Nikormat for the first time in 30 years and rediscovered being happy. I then remembered that I had once loved writing. A month later I had written around 800 pages which become four books. Today, If growing tomatoes makes me happy, I do that. If I want to write, I do that. If I want to send more images to my agents, I do that. Along the way over the past ten years I have gotten calls from many others whose lives had ended due to one loss or another..the loss of a career, the loss of another, divorce, burning down their home, ...whatever. The seed I offer today is to find what makes you happy and in that will come the magic of rediscovering life and why you are here in the first place. In being there with others in times of tragedy and in times of great miracles I have seen death in every form, but have also seen countless lives changed. Today, my seeds too...are your seeds. Stuff, people, jobs, savings, and so much more disappear in the blink of an eye, but there are seeds of far greater value. Be Yourself. BE happy.

January 13, 2010	#8
mensplace Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: USA Posts: 1,013	Growing up in the fifties happiness was running through the woods where I had my magic fort in an era when Atlanta WAS mostly old growth oaks. I was raised on the notion that we do the right things to get into college, to gain employment by a corporation, to buy the bigger and bigger house to provde fine clothes and fine cars so that your children too could have more and better and go to college to work for the corporation so that they could have the big homes and fine cars, and send their children to the fine college, ad nauseum. I well remember a debate in a marketing class re whether there IS such a thing as corporate responsibility when the ONLY role of a business was to maximize income for stockholders. Somehow, I have come a long, long way from any thoughts of being "happy" or running through the woods. Raised as a little Marine I later changed to a similar uniform that I wore for many years...IBM blue pinstripe...day after day, year after years. One day that disappeared overnight. For a year I wasn't afraid that I would die, but afraid that tomorrow would come and I would see the minutes pass day, after day, after day. One day, I remembered that I had once loved photography, so I picked up my old Nikormat for the first time in 30 years and rediscovered being happy. I then remembered that I had once loved writing. A month later I had written around 800 pages which become four books. Today, If growing tomatoes makes me happy, I do that. If I want to write, I do that. If I want to send more images to my agents, I do that. Along the way over the past ten years I have gotten calls from many others whose lives had ended due to one loss or another..the loss of a career, the loss of another, divorce, burning down their home, ...whatever. The seed I offer today is to find what makes you happy and in that will come the magic of rediscovering life and why you are here in the first place. In being there with others in times of tragedy and in times of great miracles I have seen death in every form, but have also seen countless lives changed. Today, my seeds too...are your seeds. Stuff, people, jobs, savings, and so much more disappear in the blink of an eye, but there are seeds of far greater value. Be Yourself. BE happy.