How many "Happy Warriors" have we here?

[SleeplessinSoCal]

Pete Buttigieg made the call to be Happy Warriors. I am not a happy person these days. (I try to stay active while carinng for my hubby with early stages Alzheimer's.) That alone leaves me screaming just to let off steam. #45 is the last straw.

So I will appreciate the techniques that could lead to this necessary fight. It is a fight. And I am not a good fighter.

All suggestions appreciated.

[guillaumeb]

1. We must all find occasions of happiness every day.

And embrace those occasions. And when stressed, try whistling a tune. It is impossible to frown while whistling.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

3. I love the idea of being the happy warrior.

But it may only be a good fit for small percentage of us. But the idea is inspiring.

[guillaumeb]

7. Well, every day look for something positive. It can be a sunny day,

a silly animal video, a meal. Whatever happens. At one point a few years ago, we had a large tree fall on our house during a rain storm. On the positive side, no one was hurt, and the tree on the house provided a photo opportunity for many passing by.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

11. No drugs?

I don't think I could easily get over that.

I won't go down the list, but life got really hard before Twitler showed up. Taking away our sense of security is a bridge too far. A tree falling on my house might seem like the last straw and hysteria may commence.

I miss Jon Stewart.
Thank goodness for Stephen Colbert.
And some of the people here.

[guillaumeb]

12. I have no problem with using drugs.

As long as they do not impair living.

[Kath2]

2. Take good care of hubby and yourself.

Your righteous outrage and disgust, which I share, will point you in the right direction.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

4. Thank you. I am fearful of taking out my frustration on him from time to time.

I am clocking it and trying to be more caring at all times and Florence Nightingale-like. A learning curve for sure. When I blow up, luckily he forgets. And I do a self critique.

Hard times to be happy with the selfish buffoon in the White House. Just as medical costs grow and grow.

Monsters in the cabinet are enough to make a fighter of me though.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

13. cool thought.

[pkdu]

5. Join your fellow Happy Warriors here..

https://townhallproject.com/


Cheers

PKDU

[stevenleser]

6. I'm happy. I'm happy because I know that ultimately Trump will be one of the best things to ever

happen to the Democratic Party. Just like 'W' ultimately resulted in what happened with election 2008.

We just have to get through it.

[Ptah]

8. Hubert Humphrey was the original Happy Warrior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Humphrey

Humphrey's consistently cheerful and upbeat demeanor, and his forceful advocacy of liberal causes, led him to be nicknamed "The Happy Warrior" by many of his Senate colleagues and political journalists.

[CBHagman]

10. First person I thought of.

Joe Biden too has been described as a happy warrior, but the story neither begins with Hubert Humphrey nor ends with Biden.

[url]https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/joe-biden-joins-long-line-happy-warriors/321673/[/url]

Though, as Weigel noted, Hubert Humphrey is often associated with "happy warrior" nickname, it has a political history even before him. The American Spectator wrote in 2006 that Grover Cleveland "loved the poem, would gladly recite it to friends, and directed that it be read at his funeral." But it was politically popularized—as William Safire noted in a 2004 "On Language" column—when F.D.R. used it in a speech nominating New York Governor Al Smith for president at the 1924 Democratic National Convention. Smith's campaign manager Joseph Proskauer claims to have written the speech, and included the happy warrior reference, but F.D.R. was allegedly none-to-happy to include it. Per Safire, F.D.R. tried to write a version of the speech without the reference, and saying ''You can't give poetry to a political convention." Apparently, you can. Obama also called another political figure a happy warrior: Ted Kennedy.

[VOX]

15. Thanks for providing the "institutional memory" on this...

It's much appreciated.

[CBHagman]

9. Context is everything here.

There's so much that goes into being a happy warrior, but what I think we need to revisit is that every last effort at progress has faced opposition, often massed and well-financed, and so resilience and spirit are necessary.

From an article on Pete Buttigieg:

[url]http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/19/does-red-state-democrat-know-how-beat-trump/97945706/[/url]

The style he’s offering is what he calls the “happy warrior,” a term that has also been used to describe Pence.

The warrior part, to Buttigieg, is “every falsehood has to be met with fact, and every outrage has to have a response.”

At the same time, he said, you can’t win the hearts and minds of voters if you come off as a sour complainer.

“We want to make sure we’re not only raising our voices in opposition but also establishing a movement that people would want to be proud of,” he said.

That cheerful spirit, he said, was present in the women’s marches. (And he’s been pointing out at the DNC forums that he was the only candidate to attend one of the marches.)

More on the happy warrior:

[url]https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45512[/url]

Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
—It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright;
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower:
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives...

[SleeplessinSoCal]

14. Thank you all for posting.

This has been very helpful to me. And I hope others as well.

I try keeping humor in my debates on Twitter and Facebook. (Even got a note from an adversary thanking me for the laugh). We know laughter is extremely beneficial to our health. Buttigieg's reminder of MLK "darkness" quote is worth pinning to the fridge door.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. - Martin Luther King, Jr."

[Kath2]

16. My pleasure.

Peace to you and your loved ones.

[Kimchijeon]

17. I try to look at the humor in everything

Hard as that may be. Just laughing at the ridiculousness I suppose. Sardonic/sarcastic humor, whatever it may be - it helps

[SleeplessinSoCal]

18. part of my problem was living on the Upper West Side as he began his assault

on the neighborhood. Nobody but He wanted those monstrous buildings on the Hudson River. By force of will and his relentless need to plaster his name everywhere he can doesn't evoke laughter. Maybe if you think of him as a dog marking territory.... But even that isn't funny. Because he's like a mad dig marking territory and altering our country by force of will and not via legislation as intended.