Your Life Isn’t Supposed to Be Easy | Happiness Hour

Life Audio.

On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.

Today I want to talk to you about this metaphor for life that I use and that is absolutely helpful to me, and it has to do in part with expectations. I assume that life will be filled with obstacles to happiness. I just assume it.

Well, I'd just like to say that my sister is just totally unhappy with everything.

How old is your sister? What age of teenager?

She's 15, and she's just totally unhappy. She hates my dad.

Uh-huh.

She's just—

And she's making the house miserable, right?

Yep.

That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

When someone you love is hurting, what do you do? We're often quick to say, if there's anything I can do, just let me know. But what if we stopped waiting to be asked and simply showed up? On the If There Is Anything I Can Do podcast, Pam McConnell shares real stories, biblical wisdom, and practical ways to walk alongside people through grief, loss, and life's hardest moments. Learn how to show up and make a difference. Subscribe now at klovpodcast.com, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.

It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour. Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. He he he he he he. Alrighty, everybody, you're listening to the Dennis Prager Show. It's the happiness hour. It doesn't matter what happens in the world. We don't cancel the happiness hour.

Because.

Alrighty, everybody, listen, let me tell you something. The older I get, the more I believe in the importance of happiness. I being the foolish young man that I was, And we are usually foolish when we're young. That's just the way it is. It's too bad youth is wasted on the young, as Bernard Shaw said. And I was born with an old brain. I was, I was, I was born, I was always mature. I was a mature 5-year-old. I have pictures of me at 5 and I, you know, I look like a serious young man. It kills me. It does. But anyway, that's the way I was. I just, I was always thinking and so on. But still in all, I was a foolish young man in many ways. And I just didn't appreciate, for example, when I remember, I remember so vividly learning about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And me in my sanctimonious youth thought, oh, what do the founders know? Should have been life, liberty, and some other altruistic ideal. Pursuit of happiness? Give me a break. That's so American superficial stuff. Yucky, yucky poo. Oh, it's embarrassing to tell you this.

Really?

It is embarrassing for me to reflect on how silly I was. They were so right. The of happiness. Now, they didn't say the pursuit of fun. They didn't say the pursuit of pleasure. They didn't say the pursuit of hedonism. They said the pursuit of happiness, and they're absolutely right. I want people to pursue happiness. Now, of course, happiness comes as a byproduct. I understand that. I have a whole chapter of that in my book, which gives me the opportunity to tell you about my book. One of the ongoing puzzles of my life is how you could listen to this hour, enjoy it and benefit from it, and not read the book. I know it sounds like an ad. I'll have to live with that fact. But I spent 10 years writing a book, Happiness Is a Serious Problem. It's a HarperCollins paperback. To say that I commend it to your attention is to understate the case, because I get letter after letter about its ability to change a life, and it ought to. If it doesn't, then it failed in its intent. Well, they were right. The pursuit of happiness is a big deal. And I, and I Believe in its staggering importance. As I always say, ask any child who was raised with an unhappy parent, just ask that person, how important do you think happiness is? And they will, uh, they will have an emotional response for you. It is very difficult. It is. It's difficult to be raised by an unhappy parent, to live with an unhappy person in your home, uh, to have an unhappy child. If you ask anybody, an unhappy coworker, I tell you, I believe that about an unhappy person sitting next to you in the airplane. Seriously, they, they, the vibes just make the trip worse. It's very selfish in the final analysis not to fight your unhappiness. It is. It's, it's not just for you, it's for the world. You live on a desert island, do whatever you want. So that's what I always begin by saying, how, how absolutely necessary it is for everybody. So today's topic, Is a metaphor I have, which you may not like. You may not like, I admit it. You see, I, when I talk about happiness, I'm telling you how this one human being has dealt with this issue. You may truly have different ways of dealing with the issue. Absolutely. I fully acknowledge that your road to happiness may be via a different path than mine. I absolutely acknowledge that. But apparently a lot of what I have to say on this strikes some universal chords in people. I remember speaking on happiness in India. It cracked me up. And I said, folks, this is a great, a great moment. An American is coming to India to speak on happiness. Because we all know all the Indians who come over to America, you know, Deepak Chopra and the whole gang. And all the gurus who've come here, and a lot of them have a lot to say. I don't deny that. I happen not to be a devotee of Deepak Chopra's ideas, as it happens. I had a debate with him in Hawaii about, oh, I'd say 12 years ago, 13 years ago. It was very interesting. Very interesting. We ought to do that again. Yeah, maybe, Alan, maybe we ought to arrange that because it's obviously very respectful. But anyway, I spoke on it, India. I've spoken on happiness on all the continents. That includes Antarctica. As you well know, folks, you can see me lecturing to penguins on my website because there are no people in Antarctica to talk to. So in order to say I lectured on all the continents, I had to talk to somebody. Alrighty. Today I want to talk to you about this metaphor for life that I use And that is absolutely helpful to me. And it has to do in part with expectations about life. I assume that life will be filled with obstacles to happiness. I just assume it. It is such a given to me that when those obstacles arise, they don't smack me in my face. Because I have already assumed they will happen. There are people who think this is a dark way of looking at life, and yet it has produced a very light me. It has been a major source of happiness. When I have confronted very difficult things in my life, I have taken them as an assumption, well, everybody gets it, that, that life consists of—

Pain.

potholes, obstacles, being hit on the head by flying meteorites that you don't expect to come. And that is the nature of life. I said to a dear friend of mine when I was in college, to give you an idea of how long I have held this belief, I said to him, you know what, I think most people, or at least most Americans— I can't speak about how in this regard people in, uh, Swaziland. Swaziland, look at life. But most Americans, I said, I believe that most at least start out life like this, that they are unhappy until something happy happens to them. I have the opposite view. I am happy until something miserable happens to me. The lack of potholes is for me enough to be happy. If today— is today a day without a pothole? See, most people need a day where something wonderful happens to be happy. I got a raise, I got a better job, I got a better house, I got a, I got a, I got a something. And but that can't happen every day. That happens very rarely. Wonderful things in that sense happen rarely, unless of course you appreciate the wonder of life every day, in which case wonderful things do happen every day, which I believe from the bottom of my left ventricle. That is how deeply I believe in it, that there is a wonderfulness of every day being alive and that your loved ones are alive. I mean, you know, you may see— here's an interesting thing, because this may sound to some of you as pessimistic. all assume that life is just going to be filled with obstacles and pits and potholes and meteorites flying at your head. That's not pessimism, that's realism. Now, of course, the anti-pessimist will say, oh, that's what pessimists always say, they're realists. But no, it is realism. For whom is it not true, huh? Tell me for whom it is not true. For every single human I have known It is true. So maybe there's someone, you know, there is somebody, Larry O'Connor in Racine, Wisconsin, this is not true for. But I don't— it starts when you're born. It's there. Why do babies cry? If it's all so terrific, how come they cry? It starts immediately and it ends when you die. Life is filled with this stuff. And when you know that, you are in perpetual gratitude for the days that you don't fall into a pit. And then when you fall in, you say, well, that's par for the course. That's almost— it's as ubiquitous as red lights. It's almost like saying, you know what, red lights really, really make me unhappy. I want a green light throughout my drive. Uh, today into work or back home. Well, anybody who said that is setting him or herself up for misery because red lights are part of the journey. I think in metaphors. Here's an— so here's another metaphor for you. Life is filled with red lights. That's the way it is. That's the way it is. If you don't want to drive, then, you know, you don't want red lights, don't drive. But if you don't drive, you will, you will shrivel. You will go nowhere. It is not pessimistic what I am saying. In fact, it is profoundly optimistic because then when you fall into the hole, into the pit, into whatever metaphor you like, you know, well, that's the way it is. Now I have to climb out. Or, you know what? There's some pretty nice flowers in this pit. That can happen too. The pit is very rarely all negative. Let me take a look at this, this, this, this pit I fell into. Does this make sense to you? This is, this is life-shaping. 1-800-PRAGER-776. 1-800-PRAGER-776. By the way, that's why I'm a big believer, grab whatever happiness you can the moment you can do it. We'll be back in a moment. You're listening to the Happiness Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

Did you know that The Salvation Army creates podcasts? From conversations about faith and culture to practical teaching from Scripture, The Salvation Army's network of podcasts are designed to encourage you, challenge you, and help you grow in your relationship with Christ. This month, one of those shows, Words of Life, will be taking a closer look at some of the most famous stories Jesus ever told. His parables. In a special 5-part series, Salvation Army officer and pastor Major Cam Henderson takes us deeper into some of Jesus's most powerful teachings.

Jesus was full of joy. He knew how to paint a picture that would make people smile. When we look at the story, remember the context. Jesus had just been teaching his disciples how to pray. The Lord's Prayer comes immediately before this passage, so everything Jesus says here is about Prayer— how to pray, why to pray, what we should pray for, and what we should expect.

Listen to Words of Life wherever you get your podcasts or visit wordsoflifepodcast.org.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

All right, everybody, you're listening to The Dennis Prager Show. Glad you are. The Happiness Hour here. So interesting, because I know in my— I know this is— this is a hat. You know that half the show— I've never said it quite like this— when I give a speech, and I give about, I'd say, 125 a year, and when I do a show, I'm always thinking, what are you thinking? Always, always, always in my mind is, what are you thinking? And I am— and I suspect that a number of you are thinking, Regarding the— what I'm saying about happiness, that, you know, that, that's a downer. Prager's notion, that, that's a downer. I, I couldn't go through life thinking, oh, you know, it's an obstacle course, uh, there are all these pits and meteorites gonna hit you in the head and so on. I, I can— no, I have a more optimistic view of life like that than that. It reminds me, if you feel— now, by the way, if that works for you, I don't want to change you. I want you to be happier. That's the point of this hour, because I believe so deeply in the importance of happiness. So if that works for you, don't adopt my view. Absolutely. I want you to do what works for you. But if you're not a basically happy person, or really do believe you could be considerably happier, and you have that attitude, then maybe I'm right and my attitude is more effective. It reminds me of people— the phone number here, by the way, is 1-800-PRAGER-776. I'm curious, do you find this attitude pessimistic? Do you find it a downer? I am curious. 1-800-PRAGER-776 or 1-877-243-7776. It reminds me— those who don't like this attitude remind me of those who would say to me on the issue of are people basically good. I don't believe people are basically good. That, uh, okay. I don't believe that. I think that there are many wonderful, good people, of course. But I want to tell you how that has helped me be happy. I am, I am not so shocked when I meet bad people. Instead, I am incredibly pleasantly delighted and surprised when I meet really good people, and I treasure them. I've called myself for much of my life to myself, I don't say this out loud, although I am about to. I'm a good people collector. It's a wonderful thing to collect. It's nice to collect coins. It's nice to collect books. It's nice to collect whatever you like to collect, beautiful dolls from around the world. But there's nothing quite like collecting good people, to bring good people into your life as much as possible. They are buffers against a tough world. And they bring you joy, as you hopefully, if you're a good person, will bring them joy. So that is, that person who walks around, oh, I see the good in everybody. I don't, Dennis, you have this pessimistic view. These people are far more likely to become, and here's the key word, disillusioned. Disillusioned means get rid of an illusion. You can only be disillusioned if you begin with illusions. And that's what I'm trying to say. Don't begin with illusions. You can't get disappointed. And it's not a downer.

It's a—

it's an upper. It's an uppy. It's a happy. All righty, let's go to, uh, some of your calls. Let's go to Levy, or Levi. We'll find out what he calls himself. 12 years old in Denver on KNUS. And, uh, how do you call yourself, Lavy or Levi?

Levi.

Levi, pleasure to hear you.

Well, I'd just like to say that my sister is just totally unhappy with everything.

How old is your sister? What, what age of teenager?

She's, uh, 15. Yeah, she has a 24-year-old boyfriend.

No, not, not wise. Not wise.

And she's just totally unhappy. She hates my dad.

Uh-huh.

She just—

And she's making, she's making the house miserable, right?

Yep. Yeah.

Uh, here, here is a— this may help you. This was told to me by a man after a speech I gave on, on happiness or on raising children, I don't remember which, in Texas once. Came, he walked me to the, uh, to my car in the parking lot. He said, Mr. Prager, I have figured out what happens to teenagers. And he specifically teenage girls, I think, said when they are, uh, 13, when they turn 12 or 13, extraterrestrials come and remove their brain and they substitute an extraterrestrial brain. Then at about 20, they put the, the real brain back in. So I just want you to know that is the single best theory on teenage girls that I, that I have ever heard.

Yeah, and I got a mentally retarded sister. She's 17 and she'll always have the IQ of 7, and she just— she enjoys teasing her. And she's like, remember the time when I beat up Tawny?

And really, your, your, your 15-year-old, uh, sister teases the, the, uh, the retarded, uh, sister?

Yeah.

What do your parents say about this?

Well, my parents are divorced and my dad got remarried. My real mom just really doesn't care what my sister does.

Who do you live with?

I live with my dad on the weeks and go to work with him. I'm homeschooled and I go over to my mom's every weekend that I want.

Where is it happier for you?

Definitely my dad's.

So, uh, so, and the reason you go to mom's is what? You have to?

No, just because I miss my mom and stuff.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

I don't hate her or nothing. I just—

Right.

Don't like being around her. It makes it all miserable.

Right. Do you think your parents should have divorced?

Well, it would have made it easier if they didn't, but—

I'm sorry, say that again.

It would have made it easier if they didn't get divorced.

Right.

What my mom wanted.

Uh-huh.

And, and is she seeing somebody, or did she remarry?

No, she isn't seeing anybody, but every once in a while she'll like start to see someone for about a week and then quit.

Right. Well, listen, I want to tell you something. Believe it or not, I am very optimistic for your future happiness.

Thank you.

I really— I need you to know that. I mean it from the bottom of my heart. You'll, you'll be quite all right. In fact, you, you— there's a good chance you'll be happier than a lot of kids because you will have faced obstacles early on in your life, learned that you can overcome them, and you will be even happier as an adult when life delivers its usual obstacles. Does that make sense to you?

Yes.

Well, thank you so much for listening and calling.

Thank you.

Okay, Levi. Bye-bye.

Bye.

It was a very moving call to me, very deeply moving.

Hmm.

Hmm.

Okay. You know what? There's a particularly weak spot in me for boys. And so anyway, it just touches me. Okay, let's go to some more calls and yeah, we'll take a break here. And I believe, by the way, what I said to him. I do believe that he— there's no doubt in my mind that he will be a happy, healthy, vibrant man. Levi, thank you. I'm really thrilled that you got through and that we got a chance to talk. Take some more calls here. By the way, you're allowed to call if you're not in Colorado. You know, some states, sometimes states just absolutely dominate the Coles. It's funny. Colorado and happiness. Maybe I'll write a book on that. We'll be back in a moment. You're listening to The Happiness Hour on The Dennis Prager Show.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

Did you know that The Salvation Army creates podcasts? From conversations about faith and culture to practical teaching from Scripture, The Salvation Army's network of podcasts are designed to encourage you, challenge you, and help you grow in your relationship with Christ. This month, one of those shows, Words of Life, will be taking a closer look at some of the most famous stories Jesus ever told— His parables. In a special 5-part series, Salvation Army officer and pastor Major Cam Henderson takes us deeper into some of Jesus's most powerful teachings.

Jesus was full of joy. He knew how to paint a picture that would make people smile. When we look at the story, remember the context. Jesus had just been teaching His disciples how to pray. The Lord's Prayer comes immediately before this passage, so everything Jesus says here is about prayer— how to pray, why to pray, what we should pray for, and what we should expect.

Listen to Words of Life wherever you get your podcasts or visit wordsoflifepodcast.org.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

Every week at this time, I devote an hour to the subject of happiness. Hey, Alan, have we released a CD of some of the great Happiness Hours? Because I, I so pray that this stuff touches people because I know it can, and I get such, such positive feedback. One of the first things people say to me when I go from city to city is, God, I love your Happiness Hour. It means the world to me. Because I have so given personal work, uh, and of course written the book and talked so much and for my own life. You know, by the way, let me be personal for a moment. There is this, there is a gen— I, I have a feeling that sometimes people must think that, oh, you know, this guy's happy and, you know, it's, his life is effortless and he doesn't have, you know, the, the things that everybody else has to grapple with. It's so, you just, it's not true. And if I couldn't have written on happiness, if it was all that natural to me, it is— if it was all that natural to me, I wouldn't know what made me happy, how much work I had to put in. If it just came effortlessly, somebody who could play the piano without having ever taken lessons is probably not that capable of giving lessons. All right, anyway, let's go to, uh, let's go to, uh, more of your calls. Really, it is, it is eerie. The, uh, uh, the folks in Colorado, especially the KNUS listeners, I mean, you know, you guys may have a way to get in that beats the rest of the country. Either that or happiness really registers in Colorado. Uh, let's go to another young man, Benjamin, in Denver. On KNUS. Hi, Binyamin, Dennis Prager.

Hi, Dennis, thanks for taking my call.

Thank you.

And I appreciate your show.

Good. And I appreciate your point of view today as well.

Good.

You know, I must tell you, I mean, I'm only 19, I haven't experienced, you know, a whole lot in my life. What I have experienced is that it tells me that, you know, if you expect, you know, life to be so easy and whatever, it's not going to work so well for you. I mean, you have to at least be prepared to swing at a pitch. You may miss, but you've got to be prepared to swing.

Well, yeah, that's— I like that metaphor because a great baseball player, a great hitter, gets out 2/3 of the time.

Right.

More than 2/3. If only 2/3, he's batting .333, he may win the batting championship.

Right, for sure. And I mean, and for sure, it's almost essential to have that outlook on life, to take the test.

So how do you— why do you have it at such a young age?

Well, you know, to be honest, I mean, I think I had a pretty good life. It's just that there are times where things happen.

Right, I agree, but how did you develop it? Is it just part of your nature? Did you study it?

Well, I mean, I think it comes from my outlook, from the Jewish tradition, that, I mean, it teaches that, you know, we have, you know, tests in life that challenge us, but they're only for our better, and we have to deal with them appropriately, and we have ways to do that. And I mean, I try to, you know, deal with everything, sometimes unsuccessfully, but I try, you know, throughout my life to do so.

Right. Nothing like learning the wisdom of a wise religion.

100%.

Benjamin, God bless you. Thank you so much. Great, great to hear from you. That is, by the way, you know, I say this so often about one of the things that a religious upbringing gives is that it gives you wisdom that secular life rarely, rarely gives you. Anyway, I don't want to get off track on that, but I do believe that. Brandon, also in Denver. Hello, Brandon. Dennis Prager.

How you doing, Dennis? Pleasure to talk to you.

Thank you.

I was mainly calling— I just kind of wanted to comment. I was listening to you on, uh, listening to the boy Levi that called in, and it kind of hit a place with me because I come from a pseudo-similar situation. I didn't have, uh, too many other siblings around me, but I kind of grew up with my father, and he and my mother had split up at an early age. And I know a lot of times people say it's going to be easier for people to stay married, and I'd say most of the time it's true. And, uh, I had a pretty unique situation, I think anyway, or at least I hope it's not a unique situation, to be honest with you. But my parents kind of split up because they knew they weren't good for each other, and it wasn't good to have Their problems with each other around me and my older brother. Now, my older brother—he's a lot older than I am. So, like I say, I spent most of my time with just my father because he went off to the military at 18. But it was—it was—it—I don't know how else to describe it. But my, my—you know—I was really close with my father, and I was really close with my mother, even though I only got to see them part of the time. But They did kind of instill in me, you know, that not everybody's going to be perfect.

That's right. God bless you, and I know Levi's listening to you. I'm going to— Alan, I gotta do this again and again. I gotta explain to people divorce doesn't crush children. It's how people do it that crushes children. Okay, I'm sorry, I know this goes against a lot of what people believe, but it's true. We'll be back in a moment.

Hi, Dennis. Just one of your longtime listeners. God bless you and wish you the best. Come back strong, stronger than ever. Okay, we all love you. Okay, take care, Dennis. Longtime listener in Whittier, California. Thank you so much for your show. So glad that you are doing better. God bless you. You have been in my prayers. Just calling to encourage you, Dennis Prager, and tell you what a wonderful presence you have been on the radio and in my ear and in my life for many decades. May God strengthen you and may he continue to use you in the powerful way that he is using you.

Glad to do that.

Alrighty, everybody, this is Dennis Prager, the Happiness Hour. It's a really moving one to me. Your calls are powerful. I don't want to put you on the spot if you're about to get on now. You'll think you have to measure up to some standard. Don't worry about that. But I, I, I need to state what I have— what I tell people behind your back when I'm giving lectures and when I talk to people privately— the amount that I have learned from my listeners. through your calls and your emails dwarfs anything that I learned at graduate school or before. It is— and by the way, there are people who say that this show serves as a sort of education for them, and I hope that that's true in the best sense of the word. I think of myself first and foremost, I guess, as a teacher. To me, teacher is a beautiful word. What's happened to the profession in some areas is very sad, but that's another point as well. This hour is devoted to the belief that if you understand as early as possible— and let me give you the phone number because I've been clearing some lines here to allow other states to get in. Affirmative action for non-Coloradans. By the way, there are days where it's just, you know, all California, all Minnesota. Gradually we're going to get all Texas, all Pennsylvania. I mean, it just happens. It just is. It's a— it's— But really, it is quite Remarkable, this hour. 1-800-PRAGER-776. 1-800-PRAGER-776. The thesis of this particular hour on the Happiness Hour is that life is an obstacle course. It is. You'll be hit in the head with meteorites. You will be tripped up by falling over fallen trees. You will be attacked by rattlesnakes. You will fall into pits. Uh, what you do with it determines whether you're happy, but it's not avoidable any more than red lights are avoidable when you drive. It is what we do when those things happen. If you fall into a pit, you might as well start exploring what it's like in that pit. What do I— what do I learn from it? I— it's just endless. I, you know, I don't want to, uh, endlessly, uh, beat on this metaphor, but I— that is how I look at it. And when things happen, I'm not shocked. I'm not shocked. I'm much more shocked at when, when tough things don't happen to me. I can't believe it. A day has gone by than that. It is just— I find that far more peaceful. Others may say it's pessimistic. Okay, let's go to some more of your calls here. Chris in Scottsdale, Arizona. Chris, it says you're listening on the web. Do you know that I'm on the radio in Phoenix?

You are on the radio, but I'm not sure if I can actually From my office, I don't have a radio.

Oh, OK, fine. Just wanted you to know about KKNT. Go ahead.

I appreciate that.

Right.

You were talking about collecting people, and I have to tell you that I've collected you as one of my friends, so I appreciate your show every day.

Oh, that's beautiful.

Thank you.

It touched me that the young man who called a little earlier was talking about his family and that they're divorced and he lives with his father, and I just wanted to give you a call, you know, after you had said that that was You know, you have a special place in your heart for, you know, the young, young boys.

Yes.

You know, as a young boy, I never knew my father. There was, you know, some issues that happened when I— before I was born between my mom and my father, and they were prepared to get married, but it didn't happen. Long story short, after 35 years, I actually got the itch to find out who my father was.

Well, was there a man who did raise you?

Uh, no, no, no.

Okay, so you were raised by your mom?

My grandfather and my grandmother, uh, did raise me later in life.

Okay, I see.

I did have a role model there, and I'm really grateful for that.

Yeah.

But, um, but after 35 years, we, uh, went through, uh, this, this, uh, People Finder, and it's actually— that's what it's called, People Finder. And they found, you know, well, they give you a list of names, and we found him actually by chance going through these, these, these numbers. And within a couple days after us talking on the phone, he was so excited he, um, you know, drove down here from New Mexico and, uh, and we met for the first time. And this was last month, about 4 weeks ago today. So, uh, I just thought—

What happened? What happened? What happened?

Uh, what happened is that, uh, you know, of course I lived most of my life without, uh, you know, this fatherly influence, so I wasn't really sure what was going to happen.

What did happen?

What did happen is—

Are you happy to—

Yeah. I'm sorry?

All right, as soon as you saw each other, go on.

Oh, you know, I, I recognized that there were similarities right there. And, uh, uh, there was at one point the, the, all the kids and, and, uh, you know, our wives were talking about features and things like that. And our kids noticed that, or my kids noticed that our hands were very similar. And when we touched hands to show what, you know, put our hands up to each other to look at them, Something happened in me. It was like, whoa, this is the guy. And, uh, um, it was really—

Why did he— why did he leave your life?

Uh, what happened is that, uh, uh, they were— they— my mom and him were prepared to get married. They had already picked out an apartment. Um, but my mom was very young. She was 15 when, uh, they got together. And she— and they were going to get married in the Catholic Church. And so she Got afraid to get married in the Catholic Church, and she was a little wilder as a young girl, and she had been with some other people besides my father. And she wrote a letter to one of the gentlemen saying that, you know, if anything happens, I'm afraid to get married in the Catholic Church, so if anything happens, please come down here and take care of me and my baby. Well, he took that letter and flew down to meet with the Catholic Church. There, and basically from that letter, the Catholic, uh, the priest or the bishop, whatever he was, told each of my parents individually that they didn't want to talk to each other anymore, that there was a paternity issue. And they basically thought— they left that meeting, um, thinking that neither one wanted to see each other or talk to each other anymore. And that's been pretty much what's happened.

Yeah, he did not know that your mother gave birth to you?

He knew that my mom gave birth, but the priest basically made it very clear that this child wasn't his. So he just said, okay. You know, he was disappointed, because he was going to get married, and he was—

Has he made his own family?

And he made his own family. He has— I have 3 brothers now, and 2 of them have their own families. And it's just really exciting.

What a story. Well, God bless you, Chris. And, uh, it's a, it's a moving story. I, I mean, I ha— I, I'm not a big blood fan, as, as I think a lot of listeners know, but I certainly understand since there was no— see, there was no father who raised Chris. Had there been, I'm not a big fan of the searches, uh, that are done often in adoption. But we'll be back in a moment.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Jesus was full of joy. He knew how to paint a picture that would make people smile. And when we look at the story, remember the context. Jesus had just been teaching his disciples how to pray. The Lord's Prayer comes immediately before this passage. So everything Jesus says here is about prayer— how to pray, why to pray, what we should pray for, and what we should expect Listen to Words of Life wherever you get your podcasts or visit wordsoflifepodcast.org.

Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

Alrighty, everybody, final segment of this episode, of this installment, of this chapter in the ongoing Happiness series. It is now, I would I'd say, what, about 7 years? I wonder how many years I'm doing the Happiness Hour. And you figure I do about, I don't know, let's average it out between, I'd say 45 different topics a year times 7. I mean, that's about, that's about what? Over 300, obviously. About 300 different topics on happiness. I find that amazing, actually. I'd like to, uh, I would just, I could write a few more books on it, I guess. I, I won't be. I have, I have other intentions, but, uh, it is, uh, it is endless, the, uh, the profound stuff you can say and think about unhappiness. Now, uh, there was a guy who's no longer on, but I wanted to take that call. A guy from LA said, Dennis, if you were ruined financially, would you still be happy? I can't cavalierly answer the question, but I will uncavalierly say, in other words, let's say I lost my job, or I lost the ability to speak, right? That's— I often think about that. Let us say for whatever reason I lost the ability, the physical ability to speak. Well, Then I would have to sell my house, sell a lot of things, and I would have to, uh, because if you can't speak, it's very hard to do radio and it's hard to do speeches. And so then I would have to concentrate just on writing. But if I had the people that I love in my life and I had my health otherwise, and my God and my, and, and my friends and my religion and my kids and my family and my, you know, I mean— You know, folks, I, uh, I, I can't— I, I can't imagine why not. It would, it would be a blow, but I assume blows. That's the point of this hour. I assume blows. That's why I'm so almost ecstatic generally when no severe blow has hit me. I'm actually happy that I have never been hit by a drunk driver. Okay, does that sound weird to you? Because I don't believe that I have some divine protection against drunk drivers. So I believe I could be hit by one. I have never walked through life thinking I have a protection that is available to no other human being or very few others. I don't believe that. So that's the story. And my attitude, life is filled with these, these, these holes and then snakes and God knows what other metaphor you want is not at all pessimistic. Not at all. It is what you do with it and how grateful you are when you're not hit with something that determines how happy you will be. Mike, Charlie, Kevin, Brooke, Mill, and others whose names I can't see, I'm— I really am sorry I didn't get to your calls. I hope this has been meaningful Meaningful for you.

On tomorrow's episode of Dennis Teaches the Torah.

That's what has always boggled me about these arguments with God. I mean, if God is really God, who am I to argue? And yet, for some reason that I cannot understand, because I never met God like this, it doesn't answer that. They're certain of God. I mean, to Moses, the idea of atheism would be ludicrous. He would be denying his own experience, right? So it's not a question that atheism is possible. But there are questions. Oh, are you God? What is your nature? See, that's why, ladies and gentlemen, we ask wrong questions a lot of times, and that's why a lot of people are theologically confused. People say, for example, I can't believe in God after the Holocaust.

Why?

That, to me, doesn't make sense. What makes sense is to say, I don't understand God, or, I don't love God. That makes sense to me. The issue with God is really, I— we don't understand how a good God has a world of such horror.

Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. We want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. Go to LifeAudio.com to find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, And more.

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