How to be Content in a World Full of Malcontents
By PR Huckans
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About this ebook
A book about a little bit of everything and figuring out how to live with it all. A sometimes funny, sometimes serious look at trying to prioritize our lives and focus on what is actually important, what really deserves our attention. It will make us think about how our time could be better spent trying to find our happiness in these difficult times. It's a book that reinforces the fact that we aren't alone in this world, so we need to reflect on our thoughts, our interactions and our responsibilities to one another. This life is often hectic and stressful, but it's usually the people in our lives that make our last nerve stand on end! All of us are thrust into this melting pot together, then stirred up by the media and all the problems we face in today's world--and then we wait to see what floats to the top. What if kindness, joy, happiness and peace came out the winner over anger, fear, hostility and hopelessness? Wouldn't that be a welcome change? Let's have a talk about what that means and how we can get there, shall we? Take a journey with me, see if you agree that we can make this world a better place. What have you got to lose?
PR Huckans
PR Huckans was born in California in 1971 on a U.S. Naval base. He grew up in Maryland and spent some time back east and has lived in and traveled over most of the central and western United States, Fiji, Tahiti, Australia, and Hong Kong to name only a few. He was born to parents who were both in the Navy. He attended college at Colorado State University followed by the dental program at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Denver. He moved to New Mexico in 1997. He worked with a wonderful woman whose husband died suddenly, leaving her with three small children. In 2002 when the children were aged 5, 8 and 10 years old, he married that wonderful woman, who had become his best friend, and they have worked together, played together and traveled together ever since. They are currently enjoying spending time with their grandchildren and traveling this beautiful country that surrounds us. PR enjoys anything and everything outdoors. He is an avid bird watcher and hiker, biker, kayaker, etc. Nature brings him closer to God. He joined the church in adulthood and sincerely wishes that others would recognize the joy, power and need of having faith in our savior. His books reflect everyday behavior that can be used to regain this country's morality, decency and hope.
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How to be Content in a World Full of Malcontents - PR Huckans
How to be Content in a World Full of Malcontents
Copyright 2016 PR Huckans
Published by PR Huckans at Smashwords
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
About the Author
Preface
A book about a little bit of everything and figuring out how to live with it all.
This book is dedicated to my gorgeous, loving and supportive wife, my two beautiful daughters and my ham of a son—and you said I wasn’t funny!
Special thanks to Mr. Paul Forshey for his editing, support and knowledge.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society, published by Zondervan.
Introduction
Do you find yourself grumbling under your breath about the kids today? Do you switch the channel quickly out of embarrassment when your kids are in the room and yet another erectile dysfunction ad comes on the television? Does your personal battle with road rage highlight your other battles with a colorful vocabulary and flailing appendages? Does this great big world we live in seem to be more violent, more caustic, and busier than ever? Do people seem more thin skinned--like big bags of nitroglycerin just waiting for a nudge? Are you having more difficulty navigating your way through this life without personality collisions and conflicts? Have you been struggling with the whole politically correct
concept, among other things? Me too!! (I am assuming you said yes to one or all, otherwise why are you still reading?) Is all of that just life
? Is it inevitable? Not necessarily. Why not take a journey with me and let me explain what I mean (maybe we’ll both get some things off our chests). Maybe life doesn’t seem fair, maybe you’re having a hard time focusing, maybe this life is so fast paced that you can’t catch a breath. Maybe you’re just tired and don’t see the point. Maybe you’re looking at it all wrong.
Chapter 1
This world is broken in many ways. Most of us seem to know it but don't know what to do about it. If we don’t know what to do about it, how about figuring out how to live with it, or at the very least with each other. Life is short, our work days are long and our patience is thin. Unless you’re a hermit (which probably means you wouldn’t be reading this!) you need to figure out how to cope with this fast paced life and all of us messed up malcontents in the world--or be miserable. Some people seem satisfied being miserable, but for the rest of you who yearn for a bit more, maybe these thoughts will help a bit.
It seems that everyone has something to complain about these days, and some people do it very loudly! We’ve become a society of whiners and malcontents. Nothing is ever good enough. Enough is never enough. Something's always wrong and someone else is always to blame. We have a hard time settling for anything--being happy with what we’ve got, where we are and how our lives are going. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s important and wonderful to want to improve yourself or your situation, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Have you ever been with a group of friends telling a story? All of a sudden it’s like a gathering of fisherman, each with the bigger and better (or worse) tale. That’s nothing, my cousin Freddy had a tumor so large they claimed it as a dependent on their taxes!
Everyone is so quick to top the last tale of woe, to dish on their latest troubles, to compete in the olympics of dismay. When’s the last time you asked someone how they are doing and really wanted an answer? I ask this because sometimes I really don’t want to hear the answer but was just trying to be polite! How are you today?
Well my aunt just died.
That’s great Bob, see you later!
If you ask the right person at the wrong time you may have to adjust your schedule for the answer. It seems the older the person asked, the longer the answer may be. Well let me tell you…
which leads into a very twisted nest of offshoot stories that you’re obligated to follow (to the best of your ability, because come on--really?) in case the speaker stops, stares and says where was I going with that?
If your eyes are glazed over and now you look like a deer in the headlights, well, we know that doesn't go over so well, now don’t we!
We ask the question because it is a societal norm--like a wave from the lips, but we really expect only a passing word or two. But you asked. So when the floodgates open we hear all about the inequality, unfairness and down right not niceness
of their life. I guess it’s like watching the news. The feel good stories don’t get the ratings. The tragedy and terrible stories always get the headline spots. Hip replacement always trumps grandbaby burping carrots all over mom. Now, they’ll get to the carrots eventually, but it’s not the top story at eleven.
What if that weren’t the case? What if the answer focused on the positive, the good things happening in this person’s life? Would you actually want, maybe even like to stick around for the answer then? Wouldn’t it be uplifting that someone found the good in life and wants to share? Wouldn’t it be nice to one-up
each other with uplifting stories and praises? I think that it would let us focus more on what’s right than what may be wrong in our own whirlwind lives. Maybe, just maybe. But that leads me to larger, more important questions. Are we ever really happy or content anymore? Do we even know what happiness or being content really are or what they mean to us? Do we know what’s actually important in our lives besides the next weekend or paycheck? Do we ever slow down enough to figure it out? Will we wake up one day and wonder what happened to all our plans, hopes, and happiness--all the time we thought we had? I hope not.
Chapter 2
As I sit here, I live in a world full of complainers; it’s become the norm. Life isn’t fair,
they shout. Well, I’ll tell you what I think isn’t fair. A child with cancer. A child without parents. A hard working, God fearing man being stricken with polio in his prime. Someone who has never known love, real love. Heroes being abused and forgotten. A pregnant woman being killed by a drunk driver. Anyone being killed or maimed by a drunk driver….heck drunk drivers themselves aren’t very fair now are they? The list goes on and on and you could all add to it exponentially. So what is the point? The point is that life isn’t fair. It isn’t neat, clean, equal or easy. It’s messy, complicated and full of snares, traps, obstacles, trials and tragedies. But I think that some of these unfair tragedies and situations serve a purpose. I wish they all did, but some things are just horrible--no matter how you try to spin them--and it takes better men than me to figure out why they happen. But sometimes I think we need to open our eyes and our hearts for the deeper purpose (not necessarily the meaning of life,
but maybe at least the meaning within our lives).
When I watched Amy Purdy, the paralympic snowboarder with no legs, dance with the stars on television and look beautiful while doing it, I slowly shut my mouth the next time I wanted to complain about my aching knees or back. When I saw Kate Foster, the child gymnast who lost her leg to cancer, doing a flip on a balance beam I felt ashamed to complain about not being as young as I used to be,
or my own limitations. When I see Ken, the