Well, it is a chilly, gray morning, the kind of Northeast winter day that is depressing if you want to work in the garden in your shirt sleeves and invigorating if you want to sit by the fire, drink hot mulled-cider and look at Christmas decorations, Moz

A Different Christmas Carol

Well, it is a chilly, gray morning, the kind of Northeast winter day that is depressing if you want to work in the garden in your shirt sleeves and invigorating if you want to sit by the fire, drink hot mulled-cider and look at Christmas decorations, Mozart in the background. Like life in general, this day is composed of the sum total of the thoughts one chooses to entertain about it. As Abraham Lincoln so aptly stated, "most men are as happy as they make up their minds to be." Funny how the words of a politician (and a Republican at that) who lived almost a century and a half-ago can be as meaningful as those of a close friend earlier in the day.

I have come to believe that the more I think about what I see and hear and feel and taste and touch, the more opportunity there is for me to influence my environment. I cannot control the sounds a bell makes when struck by its clapper or the registered smells as I walk across the lawn after it has been freshly cut or the color my neighbor chooses to paint his house. But I can control my interpretation of that bell's sound -- it's so eerie, or it's so joyous -- and the meaning of the smell -- must be spring or god, how I hate summer. We are constantly surrounded by a virtual cornucopia of sound and smell and taste and touch and sight, but whether I perceive it as the symphony of life or a melange of irritation, it's up to me. As Wayne Dyer is fond of saying, "the only difference between a weed and a flower is a judgment."

What we think affects how we feel. And how we feel affects how we act. Some creatures on this earth may possess a disposition that is solely the result of genetics, the pacific spaniel or the irascible pit bull being examples that come readily to mind. But we humans have been set apart from the rest of creation, the result of divine intervention or by evolutionary quirk, I am not sure (the truth be told, the former likely begetting the later). Yet, the one aspect of our humanity that is recognized above all others is our ability to think and to reason, cognizance of self. Yet what do we do with this gift? How do we use it to enhance our existence and, as Emerson suggests, "leave the world a bit better?"

To focus on and only see the gloom and horrific side of this existence we call life, interpreting this as the result of some divine retribution or cosmic injustice, condemns me to a life of misery and despair. But if I choose to interpret my experience, as perceived through whichever or all of my senses, then I have the opportunity to make a difference, if only in my life. This argument could be expanded to suggest that I cannot help but make a difference in this life. If this is true, then the issue becomes, will it be a positive or a negative difference that I make? I choose the former.

I cannot prove that I will accomplish this quest, and I certainly cannot ensure that you will recognize it even if I do. All I know is that the confluence of reason and emotion can be seen in the smile of a young child who has chosen to pursue the tail of that inherently mirthful puppy.

My warmest and most sincere wishes to you and your families during this most blessed and joyous time of the year; peace on Earth and goodwill towards all.

Robert

11 Dec 97

To read more essays by Dr. Chapman, click HERE