Life Is a Mixture

SOONER OR LATER, man, if he is wise, discovers that life is a mixture of good days and bad, victory and defeat, give and take. It doesn't pay to be a sensitive soul; let most things slide off you like water off a duck's back. Don't take the other fellow's grouch too seriously. He who loses his temper usually loses out. Carrying a chip on your shoulder is the easiest way into a fight; and the quickest way to become unpopular is to carry tales and gossip about others. A man comes to realize that the world could run along perfectly well without him, that most people have brains that are as good or even better, and that hard work, not cleverness, is the secret of success. No man ever got to first base alone; it is only though cooperative effort that we move on to better things. Man learns to sympathize with the youngster coming into adulthood, because he remembers how bewildered he was when he first entered this particular phase of existence. He learns that folks are not harder to get along with in one place than another (say than in a bar, mental hospital, AA meeting, or church) and that the "getting along" depends about ninety-eight percent on his own behavior.