For someone in the health field, I have always had a large antipathy toward healthy habits. I am fully aware that eating right, exercising, and refraining from smoking are far more effective ways of handling nearly all health problems than drugs, but I have never enjoyed doing those things. But lately my favorite ex-wife has bullied me into walking with her and though I hate to admit it, it feels GOOD. I have more energy. I am losing weight. My arthritis doesn't hurt as bad and I have less urge to smoke. I feel so *conventional*. But it is rather like starting a retirement account; conventional though it may be, it will serve to enhance my future. Hell, exercise is even enhancing my PRESENT.

So, I gripe and grumble, and I do it.

Charlotte and I take our dogs with us on these walks. They become ecstatic over "walkies.". I wish sometimes I could be more like a dog in my overall attitude toward life. Simple things like walks and rides in the car are sheer joy. Hurt feelings are forgotten immediately when something pleasant, like head patting or ear scratching, takes place. Finding the exact right spot to poop is cause for total contentment.

Dogs have what I think of as the Gomer Pyle philosophy of life. I used to love that show when I was a kid. Gomer always assumed the best of everyone, felt like life was good, and took everyone's intentions toward him to be good. And things worked out that way. As a natural-born moody, broody, depressive sort of person, it doesn't come naturally to me to behave like Gomer. But carefully titrated doses of anti-depressants, meditation, and years-long contemplation of Buddhist readings have convinced me that Gomer had the right idea. Being simple is the route to happiness.