Don't worry .. Be happy

Bill Bryson wrote the book "Notes from a Small Island" in 1995, which I'm in the processing of listening to courtesy of my passion, lately, for audiobooks. I'm not going to re-invent the wheel, I'll just use an explanation from Wikipedia. "The author had decided to move back to his native United States but wanted to take one final trip around Great Britain, which had been his home for over twenty years."

Part way through the story he finds himself taking a side journey to Weston Super Mare, and he says:

"The way I see it there are 3 reasons never to be unhappy.

First, you were born.

This in itself is a remarkable achievement.

Did you know that each time your father ejaculated, and frankly he did it quite a lot, he produced roughly 25 Million spermatzoa, enough to re-populate Britain every 2 days or so.

For you to have been born, not only did you have to be among the few batches of sperm that had even a theoretical chance of prospering, in itself quite a long shot. But you then had to win a race against 24,999,999 or so other wriggling contenders, also rushing to swim the English channel of your mother's vagina in order to be the first ashore at the fertile egg of Berloine (spelling), as it were.

Being born was easily the most remarkable achievement of your whole life. And think. You could just as easily have been a flatworm.

Second, you are alive.

For the tiniest moment in the span of eternity you have the miraculous privilege to exist.

Third, you have plenty to eat, you live in a time of peace, and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree" will never be No. 1 again.

If you bear these things in mind, you will never be truly unhappy. Though in fairness I must point out that if you find yourself alone in Weston Super Mare on a rainy Tuesday evening, you may come close."

BRILLIANT! This man is a genius in his understated way, almost as understated if he were English.