QUOTE TIP OF THE DAY:
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I was reading an interesting article today about love, marriage and sex on Salon.com called an "Antique Institution" by Benjamin Cheever, (which I highly recommend) and came across this quote:

"You're only as happy as your saddest child."

The quote above sounds like the old adage "A chain is as strong as it's weakest link". I was first made aware of this concept at a tender young age of 10 by my older brother's audio-visual entertainment obsession. He told me a handy derivation of the chain quote that went, "Your stereo system is as good as your weakest component." So if I have a kick-ass monster system, but a weak tweeter or a burned out woofer, I may as well have bought my crappy sounding stereo at K-Mart instead of from the Bang and Olufsen boutique.

I thought it was an interesting idea to apply an idea about stereos to children and family. Of course it is for people who have kids. What about those of us who do not have any kids? To what do we compare our happiness?

In such cases, it varies for what you use to fill your life with. For those promiscuous types this may apply, "You are only as happy as your meanest girlfriend / boyfreind". Or for you computer geeks, "You are only as fast as your slowest PCI-bus card adapter". Or perhaps for you job oriented types, "You are only as powerful as the lowest person who reports to you."

"You are only as ______ as your ______" style of thinking is heavily pessimistic. While it certainly has validity, it has its focus on the negative part, on the short side, on the downward limits to happiness. There are times, like times when one is down or depressed, that the weakest link in the chain of your life gets to you.

The optimist knows that the real way to maximize your happiness is to focus on enjoying the strongest links of your chain. Just as problems do not go away, they do get solved if you make them. So those weakest links will change. Pain fades and possibility and opportunity are ever present. The only static thing in this life is change, which brings said opportunity for those who can see it.

At the end of the day, I think the most interesting derivation of the chain quote is "You are only as happy as you allow yourself to be". We always have a choice.