I found this transcribed in some old notes that I had lying around. It’s the Editor’s Letter from the September 2006 issue of Best Life.
There used to be a guy in my office who had a way of setting off the battery acid in my stomach.
It wasn’t as though he had a caustic wit or a brash nature or a predilection of credit robbing. Just the opposite: He was a classic nice guy, and I don’t think I ever once heard him put another man in a bad light. He had one of those offices strewn with pictures of his family, all of them laughing as they rafted on white water or rode on horseback or splashed about in some backyard swimming hole. I guess what annoyed me about this guy is that he had the temerity to behave as though everything in his life was humming along smoothly. He had the unnerving habit of acting so … damn … happy.
Over time, though, I kept watching this cheery guy, and nothing horrible ever happened to him . He got a few promotions, his kids grew up and went to good schools, he took fabulous second and third and fourth honeymoons with his wife. In fact, he just kept on acting happy. And the weird this is , I think he knew a secret: if you act happy, you’ll be happy.
Original: Trey Ratcliff