YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast
Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson intros here.
Phrase: The nature of the beast
Are you thinking about how to be happy?
I bet you are thinking about it now because I’ve asked you.
Here’s a little secret.
If you want to be happy, you have to learn to accept things.
Life is full of stuff that we don’t like, that gets on our nerves or is unpleasant.
That’s the nature of the beast.
What I mean by that is that there are things essential to people’s character and other things.
Perhaps your husband never closes the bathroom door when he does number one, which has aggravated you throughout your marriage.
If he has been doing it for ten years, he’s not going to stop.
You can continue to be troubled by his open-door tinkling or accept it as the nature of the beast and have a little more happiness in your life.
Sure, you could install an automatically closing bathroom door.
Hey, do whatever makes you happy.
You could even get mad like Will Smith, go nuclear and SLAP HIS FACE.
Millions of people are upset that Russia has invaded Ukraine, that we can’t stop climate change, or that the Grammy Awards ceremony worsens each year.
Others look at those things as the nature of the beast and do the best they can to deal with it.
Stop buying Russian vodka, become as green as you possibly can, and why are you watching the Grammys anyway?
Happiness is found in acceptance.
Most Christians know the phrase from the serenity prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Wisdom comes with age.
Take it from an old guy.
So does happiness.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.