I’d
Pick More Daisies
IF I HAD MY
Of
course, you can't unfry an egg, but there is no law
against thinking about it.
If I
had my life to live over, I would try to make more mistakes. I would relax. I
would be sillier than I have been this trip. I know of very few things that I
would take seriously. I would be less hygienic. I would go more places. I would
climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less
bran.
I would
have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary troubles. You see, I have been
one of those fellows who live prudently and sanely, hour after hour, day after
day. Oh, I have had my moments. But if I had it to do over again, I would have
more of them - a lot more. I never go anywhere without a thermometer, a gargle,
a raincoat and a parachute. If I had it to do over, I would travel lighter.
It may
be too late to unteach an old dog
old tricks, but perhaps a word from the unwise may be of benefit to a
coming generation. It may help them to fall into some of the pitfalls I have
avoided.
If I
had my life to live over, I would pay less attention to people who teach
tension. In a world of specialization we naturally have a superabundance of
individuals who cry at us to be serious about their individual specialty. They
tell us we must learn Latin or History; otherwise we will be disgraced and
ruined and flunked and failed. After a dozen or so of these protagonists have
worked on a young mind, they are apt to leave it in hard knots for life. I wish
they had sold me Latin and History as a lark.
I would
seek out more teachers who inspire relaxation and fun. I had a few of them,
fortunately, and I figure it was they who kept me from going entirely to the
dogs. From them I learned how to gather what few scraggly daisies I have
gathered along life's cindery pathway.
If I
had my life to live over, I would start barefooted a little earlier in the
spring and stay that way a little later in the fall. I would play hooky more. I
would shoot more paper wads at my teachers. I would have more dogs. I would
keep later hours. I'd have more sweethearts. I would fish more. I would go to
more circuses. I would go to more dances. I would ride on more merry-go-rounds.
I would be carefree as long as I could, or at least until I got some care-
instead of having my cares in advance.
More
errors are made solemnly than in fun. The rubs of family life come in moments
of intense seriousness rather than in moments of light-heartedness. If nations
- to magnify my point - declared international carnivals instead of
international war, how much better that would be!
G.K.
Chesterton once said, "A characteristic of the great saints is their power
of levity. Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. One
'settles down' into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay
self-forgetfulness. A man falls into a 'brown study'; he reaches up at a blue
sky."
In a
world in which practically everybody else seems to be consecrated to the
gravity of the situation, I would rise to glorify the levity of the situation.
For I agree with Will Durant that "gaiety is wiser than wisdom."
I
doubt, however, that I'll do much damage with my creed. The opposition is too
strong. There are too many serious people trying to get everybody else to be
too darned serious.
*A shorter version
of the above under the same title is frequently attributed to Nadine Stair and,
slightly modified, to Brother Jeremiah.
This version is believed to have been written by Don Herold
and published in the October 1953 issue of Reader’s Digest.
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