Click on the comics for higher resolution.
That comic made me laugh, not just for itself, but because it reminds me of this comic:
Which in turn reminds of a verse I read in the Wall Street Journal over 40 years ago:
I wish I could retain,
By some Herculean feat,
As much of what I read
As I do of what I eat.
My hats off to that author, whoever he was. I have retained those words after all this time.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about something I read about 60 years ago.
When I was a kid I used to worry about spiders in the foot of my bedding, so I slept curled up. I hadn’t thought of that in years. And my folks would leave the hall light on until they went to bed, so I tried to get to sleep before they shut it off. I was still afraid of the dark long after I stopped worrying about spiders.
What about you? Was there anything you were afraid of?
January 21, 2026
I posted this cartoon in June, 2017.
For some it’s even more relevant today. A lot has happened in the past eight and a half years.
The bean plants still look as if they won’t last much longer, but one of the ones on the right is putting out a blossom.
And the birthday balloon is getting weaker.
But it is still managing to be almost upright.
They’re doing the best they can with what they have left. Just like Andy and me. 😀
January 19, 2026
I read these lines from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses from time to time — they always make me laugh:
Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
That is so not me. I can happily stay in my apartment for days and still feel a sense of adventure. I’m with Marcel Proust:
The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
It reminds me of the Zen Buddhist idea of “shoshin,” meaning to approach situations with openness, eagerness, and a lack of preconceptions. That may subconsciously be where the first line of my mantra came from:
Stay curious and open to life.
Anyway, for me it’s an important part of enjoying my second childhood.
In The Summer Day Mary Oliver asks,
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down–
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
I don’t (thanks to ideas, books, and the internet) even need to leave my apartment to pay attention and open myself up to life.
January 18, 2025
I mentioned this fellow before. His description of old folks falling was so true for me — I laugh every time I think of it. For me it was surprise and awareness that I was falling, but there was no thought at all that I should do anything about it.
Things change a lot as we get older, but I’m with Andy Rooney:
I didn’t get old on purpose, it just happened. If you’re lucky, it could happen to you.
I think Diane Athill (Somewhere Towards the End) was right when she said coping well with aging is largely a matter of luck. So far for me the joys outweigh the challenges, and I’m grateful for that. I have never wanted to be younger than I am — I would have to give up too much. And I still wouldn’t want to trade my life with anyone on this earth.
What about you?
January 17, 2026
That was a title of a book by Diana Athill, written when she was in her late 80s and published when she was 90 years old. The book opens with her buying a tree fern, knowing she won’t live to see it become a tree, but taking joy in watching its fronds unfurl.
That’s me with my bean plants. They are getting towards their end too, but I’ve enjoyed watching to see what they would do.
3 1/2 months old.
Andy and are also enjoying watching my birthday balloon.
4 weeks old
When I first retired people asked what I was doing with my time. I would always say,
Enjoying my second childhood even more than I did my first one.
No one asks any more, but the answer would be the same.
January 16, 2026
Humans don’t desire anything independently. Human desire is mimetic – we imitate what other people want. This affects the way we choose partners, friends, careers, clothes, and vacation destinations.
—René Girard
Obviously social influencers wouldn’t be successful if there weren’t a lot of truth in that statement.
But not everyone agrees:
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
— e e cummings
and
To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.
— Robert Louis Stevenson
I prefer Stevenson’s quote because it’s quieter and more gentle. Just a simple, “Sorry, this is what works for me.”
Do you agree with any of those quotes?
January 25, 2026
Here is what ChatGPT said:
People have been chasing the secret of happiness for as long as we’ve been telling stories. Bookshelves groan with answers. Gurus promise formulas. Researchers publish charts.
But the older I get, the less mysterious it feels.
Happiness isn’t a single feeling you achieve and then keep. It’s more like a way of relating to life —- a set of small, sturdy habits that help you stay in the game.
For me, it comes down to a few essential ingredients.
Curiosity
Staying curious keeps life from shrinking. When I’m curious, I’m less trapped by certainty, less reactive, more willing to learn. Curiosity says, What’s really going on here? What else might be true? It keeps the mind alive.
Courage
Courage doesn’t mean fearlessness. It means showing up anyway—having the hard conversation, making the change, admitting you don’t know, beginning again. Courage is what lets curiosity turn into action.
Growth
Happiness needs movement. When we’re learning, adjusting, refining—pulling a few weeds and nurturing a few flowers—we feel more alive. Growth doesn’t have to be dramatic. Tiny shifts count.
Connection
We’re not meant to do life alone. Sharing what matters to us—our work, our kindness, our attention—creates meaning. Giving and receiving are part of the same loop.
Attention
So much joy lives in small moments: light on a leaf, a dog asleep at your feet, a line that lands just right. Happiness often isn’t missing—it’s unnoticed.
Put together, these aren’t secrets at all. They’re practices.
Or, as I often remind myself:
Stay curious and open to life.
No matter what happens, keep learning and growing.
Find what you love, and find a way to share it with others.
That’s not a guarantee of constant happiness. But it’s a reliable way to build a life that can hold joy when it shows up —- and recognize it when it does.
It was trying to write for me, using my mantra and the “pulling the weeds, nurturing the flowers” ideas. I don’t know if I talked about courage in my many chats with it, but it’s clear why it included curiosity.
Anyway, which do you prefer, this one or the one written by Claude? Or both or neither?
January 14, 2026
I was thinking about yesterday’s post and decided two more things needed to be added to the secret of happiness: courage and curiosity.
I was starting to write about that when I received an email about Claude — another AI program that I had tried once.
I decided why not give it another chance? So I asked it to write a short blog post about the secret of happiness. It didn’t mention courage and curiosity, but I think it did a great job:
We spend our lives chasing it—happiness. We believe it’s waiting for us in the next promotion, the perfect relationship, the dream vacation, or the right purchase. But what if the secret to happiness isn’t something we find at all? What if it’s something we’ve had access to all along?
The Happiness Paradox
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: happiness isn’t a destination. It’s not a permanent state we achieve after checking off enough boxes on life’s to-do list. The more desperately we chase it, the more elusive it becomes. This is the happiness paradox—our very pursuit of it can push it further away.
Research in positive psychology has revealed something profound: happiness isn’t primarily about what happens to us, but how we relate to what happens to us.
The Real Secret
The secret of happiness lies in three interconnected practices:
Presence. Happiness exists in this moment, not in memories of the past or fantasies about the future. When we’re fully present—savoring our morning coffee, listening deeply to a friend, or feeling the sun on our skin—we tap into a wellspring of contentment that’s always available. Our minds generate suffering when they time-travel; our hearts find peace when we return home to now.
Gratitude. Happiness flourishes when we appreciate what we have rather than fixate on what we lack. This doesn’t mean settling or suppressing ambition. It means recognizing that enough already exists in our lives to warrant joy. The practice of gratitude rewires our brains to notice abundance rather than scarcity, connection rather than isolation.
Meaning. Lasting happiness comes not from pleasure but from purpose. When we contribute to something larger than ourselves—whether through relationships, creative work, service, or simply showing up with integrity—we experience a deeper satisfaction than any fleeting pleasure can provide. We’re not happy because life is easy; we’re happy because life matters.
The Practice
Happiness, then, is less a secret and more a skill—one we develop through daily practice:
– Begin each day by naming three specific things you’re grateful for
– When your mind wanders to past or future, gently guide it back to the present
– Invest in relationships and experiences over possessions
– Find ways, large or small, to contribute to others
– Accept that pain is inevitable, but suffering is often optional
– Cultivate self-compassion when you fall short of your own expectations
The Truth We Resist
Perhaps the hardest part of happiness is accepting that it will never be constant. Life includes loss, disappointment, and difficulty. The secret isn’t eliminating these experiences but learning to hold them alongside moments of joy, wonder, and connection.
Happiness isn’t about feeling good all the time. It’s about being fully alive to whatever we’re feeling, knowing that this too shall pass, and finding meaning in the midst of it all.
The secret of happiness, ultimately, is that there is no secret—only a choice we make, moment by moment, to show up for our lives with open hearts and grateful eyes. It’s been within our reach all along. We need only practice reaching for it.
There’s a lot of food for thought there. What do you think?
Tomorrow I will show you ChatGPT’s version. It does mention courage and curiosity.
January 13, 2026
