Alexandra: Hello Universe! Thanks for helping me with an ideal (and free!) parking spot when I went to visit a friend downtown today!

The Universe: Hello dear Alexandra! We just followed the instructions you gave us in your mind.

A: It’s good to know you’re always listening!

U: Always! We see you’ve picked Reasons to Be Cheerful for the theme of our chat today:

A: Yes. You sent it to me as I was preparing to sit down to write to you.

U: Ah! It’s good to know you’re always listening, too!

A: Haha! Good one! Being cheerful totally fits my 2025 philosophy on focusing on what’s good – because there’s always something good.

I’ve said for years that what you focus on expands. I’ve had a fridge magnet on my fridge for more than 20 years about it, but I struggled to master my mind enough to make it a philosophy to live by. Now I can. And I do, more and more!

Anyway, Reasons To Be Cheerful was a great song by a chap who, at a superficial glance, didn’t have too much to be cheery about.

Ian Dury was the leader of the excellent band Ian Dury and The Blockheads in Britain in the 1970s. They reached the coveted Number One spot in the Top Twenty in Britain in 1979 with Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. Another huge hit was the iconic Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll. So far so good. But Ian was in his 30s, and therefore considered to be too old to be a pop star. And he was crippled, as a result of contracting polio as a child.

So releasing a song called (and listing) Reasons To Be Cheerful showed a wise and optimistic outlook from a guy who could just as well have made a song called Reasons To Be Mournful.

He went on to directly address his personal situation and protest the patronising attitude he felt disability elicited in society with the song Spasticus Artisticus in 1981. Misunderstanding and criticism of the outspoken lyrics caused a backlash that damaged his career. The sanctimonious bigwigs at the BBC banned the song, not even realising that its creator was himself disabled, and therefore knew exactly what he was singing about.

Vindication came years after Ian passed away in the year 2000. The 2012 London Paralympics opening ceremony featured a performance of Spasticus Artisticus by Graeae Theatre, a theatre company formed to combat low societal expectations of disable people.

I’ve long thought that the term “disabled” is pejorative. The way I see it, everyone is differently abled. No exception. I envision a world in which, to borrow and extrapolate from a poem by the great Langston Hughes, we touch everybody with kind hands and hearts.

Now that’s a reason to be cheerful!

The Universe: Just so.

Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash