Thought for the Day from Mom Dukes

Mom Dukes says:

"A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and outlast the unbearable."



There' s a lot of unbecoming, unconventional, and unpleasant things (*cough*andpeople*cough*) in my life, but nothing seems to be unbearable. Its worse when I bring them upon myself, but as for the things I have no control over, I figure I should fix if I can, leave it be if I can't.

Music is extremely theraputic for me, and I realized when I was "goin' though it" recently that if you put your iTunes on shuffle, and turn your speakers up just below as loud as they'll get, the song you need will find you. And it'll feel amazing.

In my latest period of self-realization (aka being depressed in my room), the song that gave me a loving slap in the face was "Smile" by Tupac and Scarface. All I needed was the first thirteen seconds of the song, in which the late-great told me this:

"There's gon' be some stuff you gon' see, that's gon' make it hard to smile in the future. But through whatever you see, through all the rain and the pain, you gotta keep your sense of humor. You gotta be able to smile through all this bulls**t. Remember that."

So to Tupac I say:

Dear Mr. Shakur,
Thanks for the advice. I'll try my best.

-Cousin Chris