| "The Whole World
Stinks!"
While Grandpa is taking a nap on the
couch, his seven-year-old grandson gets some Limburger cheese from the
refrigerator and smears it on Grandpa’s mustache.
When grandpa wakes up, he says,
"This room stinks!" He goes to another room and says,
"This room stinks." After walking throughout the house, he
says, "The whole house stinks!"
Grandpa goes outside and takes a deep
breath and says, "The whole world stinks!"
Your attitude about life does the same
thing.
Examples
1. Your marriage is not going well. You
go to a movie and notice how nobody smiles. Couples seem to be bored
with each other. The movie’s happy ending seems phony.
2. Someone’s nasty comment at work
makes your head feel like exploding with anger. While driving home,
everyone seems aggressive and rude. You drive like a dangerous, insane
maniac. You think about gun ownership.
3. You watch the news on television for a
few hours and feel uneasy. You go outside and look at airplanes as
possible threats. You suspect your neighbor might be a bad guy. You jump
out of your skin when a kid yells, "Bang!"
4. Your business just made a healthy
profit this month. You celebrate at a restaurant where the food tastes
great and the waitress is cheerful. When you go outside, the sunset
looks glorious. Everyone seems to be smiling.
Why Life Changes
In an article "Is it Possible to Be
Happy?" L. Ron Hubbard writes:
"You remember when you were maybe
five years old, and you went out in the morning and you looked at the
day, and it was a very, very beautiful day, and you looked at the
flowers and they were very beautiful flowers.
"Twenty-five years later you get up
in the morning, you take a look at the flowers—they are wilted. The
day isn’t a happy day.
"Well, what has changed? You know
they are the same flowers, it’s the same world, something must have
changed.
"Probably it was you."
"Actually, a little child derives
all of his pleasure in life from the grace he puts upon life. He waves a
magic hand and brings all manner of interesting things into being out in
the society. Here is this big, strong brute of a man riding his iron
steed, up and down, and boy, he'd like to be a cop. Yes sir! He would
sure like to be a cop; and twenty-five years later he looks at that cop
riding up and down and checks his speedometer and says, 'Doggone these
cops!'
"Well, what is changed here? Has the
cop changed? No. Just the attitude toward him. One's attitude toward
life makes every possible difference in one's living. You know you don't
have to study a thousand ancient books to discover that fact. But
sometimes it needs to be pointed out again that life doesn't change so
much as you."
"The day when you stop building your
own environment, when you stop building your own surroundings, when you
stop waving a magic hand and gracing everything around you with magic
and beauty, things cease to be magical, things cease to be
beautiful."
Add Some Magic to Your Life
Clear out the smell of Limburger cheese
and make your life more enjoyable with this exercise.
1. Look around you. Notice your immediate
surroundings in present time. Focus on where you are.
2. Think of a way you can make your
environment a little more comfortable. Write it down.
3. Think of a way you can make your
environment a little more cheerful. Write it down.
4. Think of a way you can make your
environment a little more beautiful. Write it down.
5. Do these three things.
6. Repeat as needed until your attitude
and the world around you improves.
The article "Is it Possible to Be
Happy?" is in the book Scientology:
A New Slant on Life and available in our bookstore. |
