I can’t decide which is better…getting free sushi or seeing someone happy. It’s may b a tie. I mean, I really like sushi. Good sushi, that is. That stuff you get from the grocery store that has been sitting in the plastic case for a few days isn’t good sushi. It may tide me over for a day, or send me to the porcelain God for penance. I avoid it when I can. Good sushi is made fresh, in front of your(my) eyes, and crisp in the crisp parts, smooshy in the smooshy parts, and never smells of fish. I’m getting hungry…..

I like to make people happy. I know I don’t always succeed, my children will probably be the first to tell you that, but I do try. I have made a lot (several…few…three?) people sad, mad and disappointed in the not so distant past. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t something I set out to do. I would much rather make people happy. The problem is when I make people happy by sacrificing my own happiness. That doesn’t end well.

I had dinner with a dear friend that has been unhappy for a long time. Some of the unhappiness he blames on me and some of it he knows is his own fault. Personally, I think happiness comes from within. It is a choice we make. We can choose to be happy or we can choose to be sad. Easier said than done? Yes, it is. But it all depends on your outlook on life and how you see the people around you.

My kids were assigned to read Anatomy of Peace a few years ago and I read it with them. Okay, not “with” them, but I read it at the same time. Anyway, I really liked the message it gave. To put it in a nutshell, too many times we look at other people as objects in our lives. Some times they are an object in our way or they are an object that gets us where we want to be. What we need to do is look at other people as actual people.

If you think about it, it is almost overwhelming in grandeur. Here I sit in a classroom full of 27 students. Each one of them has their own personality, they own family, background, talents, likes, dislikes, aspirations, futures…it can go on and on. Each person on the planet is like a universe walking around bumping into other universes…sharing knowledge, experiences, and germs. If you really look at each person a their own universe and try to understand each person’s unique universe…well, its hard. It kind of makes my brain hurt. That is why most people just look at other people as objects.

Not sure how I got to this point in the post, but I think the point is that I went to dinner with my dear friend and saw them in a different light. I’d always seen them as a unique, wonderful individual, but this time I saw something else. I saw what I had never seen before because I had always been on the other side. I saw him really excited and happy. It made me almost cry. I used to make him happy but I never saw it from this view.

I’m gonna have to let sushi take the silver medal this time. Seeing that someone I really care about is happy wins the gold. Cause I said so.

PHOTO CREDIT: WWW.STABBING-FISH.COM