How to be free: STOP MOANING; BE MERRY

I’m writing a series of blog posts exploring the books “How to be free” and “The Idle Parent” written by Tom Hodgkinson.   I enjoyed a lot of the ideas expressed in these books, and think that exploring them further will help me to explore further the principles behind my own way of living and parenting.

Chapter 18 - Stop moaning; be merry - COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

In this short chapter Tom talks about moaning.  There are a few different types of moaning.  There's moaning and feeling sorry for yourself, and not really expecting anything to be done about it, just wanting other people to hear your dissatisfaction and perhaps commiserate; or there's moaning about something and then deciding that you do have a choice and you can do something about it.

Tom suggests that we should just cut out a few of those first type of moans, and instead either find a way to change what we don't like, or look around for something to feel happy about.

How does this match up to the ink-spots-and-grass-stains life
I may be speaking completely out of turn here, and I'm sure people will put me right if I've missed something... but I don't think I'm that much of a moaner.  I like to see the glass as half full, and I generally do look at the world and see brightness.  Of course I'll have a moan about the drivers who insist at driving at 40mph in the 60mph zone (and also in the 30mph zone), and a bit about the weather, and occasionally about the children... but comparatively, I'm not much of a moaner.  So I think I can safely say that there isn't much for this chapter to tell me.