SUNNY-SIDE UP

"How would you like your eggs this morning, Miss Joy?" the waiter asked the lone woman sitting across from me at the next table.

"Sunny side up, if you would, Walter," she answered in a cheerful voice.

I looked up from the morning paper, feeling a trite suspicious of anyone named Joy. Apparently, she'd not read the headlines, or bothered to turn the television on. I took her cheerful mood as a personal affront. No one should be happy, taking into account the sad state of affairs.

I had the sudden urge to sober this happy woman up, to make her see that there was nothing to be happy about, nothing at all. She should've asked for her eggs scrambled, and she should've done it with a scowl on her face, like mine, as I read the morning paper and got all tangled up in national and world affairs.

I leaned over in my chair, motioned to get her attention.

"Excuse me, Miss Joy, but did you happen to read the paper this morning?" I asked. Surely there was a glint of spite in my eyes, but she didn't seem to take notice.

Instead, she nodded and smiled sadly. Then her blue eyes became cloudy and her smile disappeared. The waiter arrived with her sunny side-up eggs, and she picked at them without gusto.

Strangely, I didn't experience the satisfaction I thought I would by wiping the smile off her pretty face. I felt sad, and wished I could put aside all the bad news, take a moment to enjoy the everyday things life has to offer. Like a cheerful voice and a bright smile coming so appropiately from a woman named Joy.

MORALS OF THIS FICTICIOUS STORY:

Ignorance is not bliss, though it helps.

Happiness doesn't come from without, but from within.

Everyone has a right to a happy moment.

There are things we can change and things we cannot. It is important to make this distinction, to separate the world news from our personal lives. One is out of our control, the other at our fingertips.