"Somebody's Not Doing His Job!"

I loved this from Walk the Talk Network today. What Lucy said made me laugh-- Excerpted from The Richest Man in Town: Chapter Titled The Source of Happiness:

At times Marty made it sound too easy. On a visit to his home I heard him say, “People need to decide to be happy.” I pressed him. “What do you mean by that?”

His face took on an incredulous look. “You have to ask me?” At that moment I felt a little foolish. Complex human problems, at least to me, often prevent people from being happy. To Marty it was a matter of common sense. I wondered, what was I missing?

“C’mon, Marty,” I said, “do you really think people can actually decide to be happy?”

“Who makes decisions for you?” Marty asked me. “All my life I’ve watched people waiting for someone else to make them happy. The way I got it figured, the only one who can make you happy is you.”

As I considered his point, my mind began to wander. Strangely, I thought of an old “Peanuts” cartoon–the one in which Lucy asked Charlie Brown, “Why do you think we were put on earth?”

Charlie Brown answered, “To make others happy.”

“I don’t think I’m making anyone happy,” Lucy replied, “but nobody’s making me very happy either.” Then Lucy screamed out, “Somebody’s not doing his job!”

I smiled at that moment, thinking Marty had something in common with Charles Schultz, the creator of the “Peanuts” cartoon. Both seemed to be saying that it was silly to expect other people to have such an influence over our lives.

That was Marty’s lesson: Only you can make you happy.