Melissa Nacy – Music Man
You know that little arch at East U & South U between West Hall & Shapiro? Well, I’m walking through that little courtyard yesterday, upset at my professor for being unnecessarily harsh, at life for Grandma’s skin cancer coming back, at Grandma for blowing off doctor appointments, at Dad for telling me the news in the midst of a bad day and at my roomies for scheduling a dinner outing in the middle of English when, in true Ann Arbor style, a man sitting on a garden ledge catches my attention with the music of his harmonica. A white piece of paper leans up against the wall. I continue on.
With a second glance, I strain to read the message: “There is no time like the present.” No, wait, that’s not right. What’s it say? “There is no time like the pleasant.”
Well, duh. Thanks.
However, as I walk away, a smile crosses my face. I wonder if that man is out today to make a difference. If so, how does he know if he succeeded or not? Does he need to know? Does he care to know?
I always liked the quote “There is no time like the present.” As Jefferson said, “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” We have to make the most of our time, of our lives. We have to make a decision to be driven, to get things done, to go after what we want. Can’t we apply the same to “the pleasant”? Can we decide to make a time a happy time? I do believe we can on a small scale, such as making a class enjoyable or being in a goofy mood to ensure a good time with friends. We can decide to make a dreadful family picnic a good time just by deciding to be in an upbeat, funny, easy-going mood. Can’t we then, make time pleasant on a larger scale? We can make those small-scale decisions over and over again or simply set our minds to achieve a larger picture, a happy period in life. I could decide I hate college and Ann Arbor, I miss home, I’m not having fun, I don’t fit in, I made a bad decision – or I can decide that I’m going to make the best of this. I think that by choosing our mindset and being optimistic or pessimistic we can determine how we feel about things, events, places and people.
Perhaps Grandma doesn’t share her health problems with the family because she doesn’t want to interrupt or destroy “pleasant time.” And again, I prove to myself, with Grandma’s sickness and a music man’s inspiration, that it’s not worth it to be upset over a professor in a bad mood or a missed appointment – life has larger meaning than that.
“There is no time like the pleasant.” On the surface, it has obvious meaning. But what does it mean? It can be taken in a million different directions.
Just a thought I had yesterday.
10 comments so far
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This blog actually just cheered me up a little bit. It is a good thing to focus on the pleasant. You can worry about deadlines, work, school, and health or you can think positively. I agree with you that you can make a decision to make things pleasant. It all depends on the way you think about something. If you find yourself in a gloomy mood and focusing on the downside of things, then try to lighten the mood. Sometimes this is a very hard thing to accomplish, but sadness can be remedied by thinking about the pleasant. Like you said, you could decide that you hate college and let all these negative statements surround you. However, you can decide to make the best of things and eventually things will turn out right. I’m glad that weird things happen in Ann Arbor from time to time…they make me think.
-Nick Ward
I do believe that people should focus on the pleasant things in life. However, realistically that is hard to do. Why is that though? Why is it so much easier to focus on the bad things in life rather than the good things?
For example, last week was filled with events—both good and bad—and for some reason, the bad events stuck with me the most. The highlight of last week for me was finding out my best friend is coming home from London to see me soon. The low point of last week for me was getting into an explosive fight with my mother. I should be focusing on the fact that my best friend in the whole world, who I haven’t seen in months, is coming to visit. Instead, I am focusing on the anger I have towards my Mother. That is no way to go through life.
The easiest and most successful way to achieve happiness in life is to focus on happy things. That’s easy to say and hard to do because it is in human’s nature to worry. People don’t worry about things that make them happy. Instead, people worry about things that make them sad or angry, etc. And unfortunately, these worries stick to some people like glue, dragging them into a less happy state of mind.
Although there are people who have the ability to focus on the good things in life, there are not many. In fact, most of the people I know with this capability are older. Maybe they’re stronger, or maybe they’re wiser. Personally, I hope that the latter is true. Then, I will be a happier person and the world will seem like a more beautiful place. The good things in life are much more common then the bad things and to be able to focus on these good things is a gift.
Rob Carter
I agree with the belief that we can make a bad or unhappy situation a pleasant one. You might be having a bad day, but again each day is a new day and a fresh beginning. I remember in Junior High we would have these cheesy announcements that would talk about an event or important person in history to try to motivate the students. But what was most significant about these was at the end the person would say “make it a good day or not, the choice is yours”. That kind of always stuck with me. I mean everything could be going wrong in school or with your friends but it is up to you to flip it around and make it better. It is easy to pawn off a bad mood on some other circumstance but I think of it as almost a responsibility to make each day as pleasant as possible and live life to the fullest. Enjoy the moment but also look to the future to ensure that that time too will be a happy one.
Stephanie Baum
I enjoyed this blog. I always appreciate when people remind me to enjoy the present because I forget so easily. I have a tendency to be pessimistic and sweat the small stuff and it significantly impacts my mood too much of the time. However, if I’m in this situation, and I consciously decide that it is not worth the wasted energy, and I should cheer up, then I always find I am happy I did. However, I do find it difficult to completely alter my perspective on life and I know it is impossible to always be happy and in a great mood, but I also know that it is possible to always be optimistic, and have a certain outlook on life. That is why I like being told to ‘enjoy the present’ because it is then that I realize that it is not worth ruining a day because of a bad test score or letting my mood affect other people, and more good would come of me putting a bad situation in the past and moving on. That is also why I like Ann Arbor, because it is so easy to be reminded about the pleasant here.
David Braid
Wow. This is so true. This has been my approach to college life. When I graduated high school I had many regrets that I didnt do a lot more for my school’s community, so I’ve been trying to participate in many extracurricular activities. I know that when college is over, all of these opportunities to experiment with different things will also be gone. Working in a professional environment takes up a lot of time and the activities I participate in will be restricted. Yes academics are important, because you need a good GPA to get a job, but enjoying social aspect is just as important, I feel, to a sucessful college experience.
So far , so good. Let’s hope I can keep it up as I progress harder upperclassmen courses.
Marie Ternes
That is the perspective that we need to have more often. Especially now that we are in college, life is stressful. It is too easy to get caught up in all of the little things. I mean, so what if you miss the bus and are late to class. Yeah you may have missed a minute or two of lecture, but in the grand scheme of things, does that even matter?
I think the problem is that we are too narrow minded. All we understand is what we are doing right now. But there is so much more out there. I had a big wake up call last year when my grandma got really sick. She was in and out of the hospital for three months. Before she was sick, I was over concerned about my grades, my friends, and other things that tend to all work out in the end. But when I was faced with something that really mattered, a human life, nothing else seemed to matter.
I think that what we really need is to find enjoyment in everything we do. It is surprising how just smiling makes you feel better. We chose to come to college after all, so lets enjoy it.
Peter Gao
I agree, we need to maintain a healthy, pleasant outlook on life despite any hardships we may encounter, whether it’s as minor as getting a C on our first mid-term exam or something as devastating as losing our homes in California wildfires. In general, we are blessed to have the opportunity to attend college and it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted. For instance, during the 1960s Cultural Revolution in China, public education had ceased and my father was sent to the countryside at a tender age of sixteen and relegated to a hopeless life on the farm. Despite enormous adversity and no formal education past seventh grade, he remained optimistic and persevered through the hardships by dedicating years to self-studying. This optimistic and determined outlook on life helped him beat candidates with twelve years of formal education, and score in the top one percentile in his college entrance exams. His dreams of pursuing an education at prestigious universities in China and America were rekindled because he focused on what little hope there was and never let adversity break his spirit.
Glenn Tucker
I agree that we should be reminded to enjoy our time more often and to count our blessings. I went to high school with said harmonica player’s daughter and have been aware of him for a while. Upon further research, I discover that he (Tom Goss) is a Senior Research Associate in Molecular Biology by day. According to a September 2004 Michigan Daily Article about him, he has been playing the harmonica for much of his life as a form of stress release, and that he keeps his scientific work entirely separate from his harmonica playing. He clearly has a feel for stress reduction; he generally has a clever sign next to him when he plays like the “no time like the pleasant” one. Sorry to bore everybody that reads my post; I wasn’t feeling terribly creative and by the time I commented everybody had summed up my initial response to Melissa’s entry.
Hira Hussain
Many times we forget to have fun. Before reading this blog I was also very stressed out but it really helped me cheer up. After all in the bigger picture of life, these things really don’t matter. What matters is your life. You have one life and one should live it to the most. I think that harmonica players are really optimistic. Sometimes we need to be thankful for the fact that we are better than many. There are so many people in this world that have greater problems than us. I had an excellent high school year and I want to have an even better college experience. I am in one of the best universities, and a great town like Ann Arbor.
Kyle Shenfeld
That quote is one of the most importnat thnigs people can ever learn. It is necessary to live your life to the fullest and most at all times. If people are upset, its easy to drown in your sorrorws. However, if you remember that there is no time like the present to make a difference and make a change, the sufferent will seem minimal in comparison to the relaxation time and time of enjoyment.
People need to learn to abide by this rule more often. It is an important message for life and it is benefical both to you as well as to those surrounding you. If people live for now as opposed to for later, they will be happier and more successful almost inevitably.