A reader comments upon Matt’s relentlessly upbeat spirit and asks him if his mindset is truly glass-half-full, or if he just keeps his darker moments to himself.

Matt responds:  

 

The first part of my life I spent with the ultimate disaster.  I met with families who had lost the most precious thing in the world:  their loved one.  When that happens, everything else becomes sort of mundane.

In my life I have tried to be Pollyanna.  I’m always looking for the pony in the pile of shit.  And it gets me though life.  I tried booze, but that didn’t work, so I gave it up.

I have a saying to myself:  “No matter how bad it might be, I give myself 5 minutes, and if it’s really bad, 10 minutes, to get all pissed and bummed about it; then at the end of that I say, ‘I don’t have any more time for that; I think I found the pony; now, how can I ride it?’”

So, like little Orphan Annie says, “the sun’ll come up tomorrow.”  It always does, but the question is:  Are we going to be here to enjoy it?  Grab every day, pull everything you can out of it and out of yourself.  We’re not here to be static, we’re here to grow.  That means change.  Life is not one big party, because after the party there’s the hangover.  There are a lot of hangovers in life.  The world doesn’t give a goddammn whether I’m happy or not.  Happiness happens between my two ears.

I understand that everything is temporary.  I do what I can to make a bad situation better, and if I can’t, I move on.  I don’t sit there in a raging storm waiting to be blown away.  Sometimes you’re better to just get the hell out.  Things are the way they are, not the way you want them to be.  I can carry on, “Woe is me,” and be the fool in the corner sucking my thumb—but I’d rather be the wild stallion running through the field, not knowing where I’m going and not giving a damn.  It’s a fool’s way of living, but I think we make whatever life we’re going to live.

That’s what I keep telling the hundreds and hundreds of children I meet:  You will live in whatever world you make.  You don’t live in the world I make.  If you judge and condition yourself by other people’s standards, it’s a tragedy.

I’ve always thought you have to keep your hand over the sad buttons, because the world is always trying to push them.  You also have to pump up your glad button and make sure it’s well oiled.  When somebody pushes your sad button, push your happy button immediately.  It might take some practice and innovation, but I absolutely believe you have to do that.  This too will pass.  Go get ‘em.  If they don’t like it, let ‘em eat cake!

Matt