Another guest post is by our pal and regular TPC contributor, David Garber:

THE HAPPY HEREAFTER

A Huffington Post entry caught my attention, “Pessimists Live Longer Lives.” I couldn’t help myself from reading on because below it was a picture of one of my heroes, Woody Allen. And if he was associated with this article, I figured it could be filled with some wonderful bon mots. Well, sadly, there wasn’t a word from Woody in it. He only represented the theme by his aged, unhappy face. Oh, the gist of the article is that grumpy old men seem to go on longer than those with more optimistic views on life. A perfect theme for Sequestration Day.

From a sampling of some 40,000 people — face to face interviews — the findings are pretty decisive… The mortality rate among other things caught my attention. Here’s their summation: Grumpy Old People:

“…were found to have a 9.5 percent rise in reported
disabilities and a 10 percent rise in risk of death.”

Wow, from that the decision is simple — think the worst and live longer. Then it got me wondering, could this be the old joke about the patient who goes in to see his doctor, wanting to know the secret of living longer? The doctor looks at his patient and says, “Chuck, what you have to do is give up sex, cigars, red meat, television, wine, pornography and chocolate.” Stunned, Chuck looks at the doctor and asks, “If I give all those things up, I’ll live longer?” The doctor shakes his head and replies, “No, not really. But it’ll seem like it.”

So maybe that’s what this article is really saying. If your’re grumpy and have a bad disposition and hate everything, you will only think you lived longer. But I’d rather be happy, optimistic and enjoy the time I have — even if that means life is too short.

Let them put me on a dirt furlough six feet under, with a smile on my face — that way, when I arrive someplace in the afterlife, I’ll be happy when I get there. Unless of course, it’s GOP headquarters.

For the past 25 years, David Garber has been serving as the show runner and or writer on some of television’s biggest hits… Saved By The Bell, Power Rangers, 227, Bill Cosby Show and many other network series. His writing and producing have also netted David two very prestigious awards:the PRISM AWARD and the TV CRITICS AWARD – TV SPECIAL OF THE YEAR. Currently he’s authoring a short story series called “A Few Minutes With…”