Living on the Sunny Side

In 1985, legendary singer James Brown sang his hit song, "Living in America", which appeared in the movie, Rocky 1V pictured below.  Apollo Creed entered the boxing ring with the red, white, and blue hat and jacket and James Brown in the blue gave his usual excited and enthusiastic singing and dancing.

I thought he would be perfect to introduce the new name of my blog, "Living on the Sunny Side."  I went through all the verses of his song and he did not mention sunshine once.  He mentioned a number of places in the country, but he did not mention Colorado once.  If I'm inspired in the future I might change his lyrics which would be my first soul song. I will never be able to dance like, "The Godfather of Soul." (and you are very lucky)

Since I am no longer, "Becoming a Southerner," living in Myrtle Beach, it was time to change the name of my blog. Instead of switching to "Becoming a Westerner" since I'm now living in Colorado which is considered the west, I think this is more appropriate.  But, what does it really mean?

One of my favorite quotes that I first read around forty years ago came from Napoleon Hill who said, 

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache, comes with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

There is no doubt that today, yesterday, and all other times in history, there are bad, unfortunate, and awful things that happen.  They also happen to you and me too.  We have a choice in how we respond to those things and that many times is more important than what actually happened.

One example: Last spring I was hit head-on while I sat at a traffic light.  The car was going at least forty-five miles an hour according to the police. It was definitely not a good thing.  When you suddenly see the face of a driver with his eyes wide open and scared to death and he is directly in front of you-it's a really bad thing.

What were the good things? Obviously I survived and had very minor injuries.  I was two miles from home and my wife could get there quickly. Two people immediately came to my aid.  Our Subaru, probably saved my life and Subarus have been advertised as being a car that would keep you safe. That Subaru did not survive, but my wife got a brand new Subaru and we could afford it. Geico, our insurance company, was very quick and the other guys insurance company was amazing to me and gave us a settlement.

I could come up with a few others, but the important thing is your attitude when things happen.  Don't expect the worst to happen.  An hour or two ago someone posted, "Get ready for $15 a gallon gas prices." The odds of that happening are slim and none.  Thinking that way is not healthy for you or anyone around you.  

So, I'm here in Colorado and I am living on the sunny side. I am going to continue to write positive and amusing posts as I have for the past seven years.  I will also continue on my website to post a "Magnificent Monday" column each Monday as I have for the past eighteen months.

And so, another blog sets in my neighborhood, which is also your neighborhood.