My late mother, Mary Helen Brim McCall was an advocate for living on “the sunny side of the street.” She often spoke of the “sunny side of life.” When I was growing up I figured the other side must be the “cloudy side of the street.” I determined I didn’t want to spend much of my time there.
Through the years I have met many a soul who allowed themselves to be lured over to the cloudy side – the side where the sun doesn’t shine through. They seem to go through life with a furrowed brow and with their lip pooched out. You know some of those people. The ones who are always attending a party – a pity party. They have decided life is out to get them. Their unhappiness is not their fault. You might call them the “blamers.” They blame their wife, or their husband, or their parents, or their children, or the government, or their neighbors, or….God for their troubles. It’s never their fault. The thought of crossing over to the sunny side of the street terrifies these folks because it would mean taking responsibility for their attitudes and, hence, their lives. It’s just easier to hide under the clouds, or so it seems.
These sad people never seemed to grasp what an old black preacher preached many years ago, “All God’s chil’en got troubles.”
Many years ago, a 100 year-old man was the guest on the Johnny Carson Show. The old man was something else! He was bright–eyed, energetic and a real cut-up. His enthusiasm for life was obviously contagious, and the audience loved him. At the end of the interview, Mr. Carson observed, “You are obviously a happy person.”
Then, Mr. Carson asked, “What is the secret of your happiness?”
“Well,” answered the old gentleman, “when I wake up in the morning I figure I have two choices. I can be happy, or I can be unhappy. And I choose to be happy!” Now those are words to live by!
President Abraham Lincoln, who had his share of troubles, said, “People are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.”
I suppose we all, from time to time, find ourselves on the cloudy side of the street. But it is very important not to linger there too long.
Many years ago, my brother, John’s son, Carson, came home from school one day in a foul mood. He was just a boy then, only 7 or 8 years old. As he entered the kitchen at the old home place, my mother noticed he was “all out of sorts.” His head was down and he was swinging his head from side to side.
“What’s wrong with you, boy?” my mother asked.
Without looking up, he answered, “I don’t know, Ma. I think I’ve got a bad attitude.”
“Well, hold your horses right there!” she said. “We’ve got to have a long talk!”
Every time she shared that story with me her eyes would fill up with tears.
They had that long talk. I don’t know what was said. But she assured me he never came home with a bad attitude after that day. Sometimes we need directions to find the “sunny side of the street.”
I have a life-long friend who has had his share of troubles. One day as we talked, he observed, “Jack, there have been very few times in my life when I was firing on all 8 cylinders.” I was reminded of the title of the late comedienne, Gilda Radner’ book, It’s Always Something.
How about these words to live by from Joseph Fort Newton? “We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us, how we take it, what we do with it – and that is what really counts in the end.”
It is what we do with the circumstances of our lives that determines which side of the street we live on – the cloudy side or the sunny side.
I wish you well, fellow pilgrim. And I hope we meet someday on this journey called life. Look for me on the sunny side of the street.
Copyright 2026 by Jack McCall
