The cheerful heart has a continual feast.
—Proverbs 15:15
Molly Picon, star of Yiddish stage and film, spent many nights crammed in jam-packed hotel rooms with her theatrical cohorts. Bellyaching about the sardine circumstances was the language of the night. But never a murmur from Molly.
One night a voice from the darkness asked Molly why she—the star—never complained.
“My grandmother brought up eleven children in four rooms,” she said.
“How did she manage that?”
“She took in boarders,” Molly answered.
You know people who could sulk their way through Disneyland. Chronic complainers. Gruff, gloomy, grouchy, people.
You also know the opposite—people who are perpetually cheerful, even while facing wretched circumstances.
Attitude is a choice.
There is no way to modulate the
voice to make whining appealing.