Thus The Wall Street Journal today. “How we construct personal narratives has a major impact on our mental well-being,” elaborates the newspaper. The title and byline immediately reminded me of my fall in the Alps fifteen years ago. The way I tell the story, the calamity ended up being a great boon because it gave me much time to think about the rest of my life. And my retirement from teaching and research is nothing if not a boon. The article was prompted by two studies published together in the last issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which show that people who frame events in their lives in positive ways have better mental health than those who frame them in negative ways. The rest of the article is neither here nor there, but the title and byline still stand. Indeed, a good spin on your life is all you really need. It is funny how low science has stooped if this is considered worthy of mention, let alone a full-blown argument. Which only adds zest to my retirement from academia.  Phew!

Addendum (November 27, 2015)

Having chanced upon this piece in one of my random searches through my writings, I cannot suppress a smile at its boisterous tone. And boisterous it surely is. Not because of my cheerful story about my fall in the Alps, which is innocent enough, but because I often forget the greatest lesson of that fall: the perils of arrogance and pride (“My Greatest Sin,” July 27, 2001; and “The Perils of Arrogance and Pride,” May 8, 2013). Indeed, the first piece I wrote about this subject was only a few days after the fall, while I was still in hospital, and the second piece was written after yet another fall a bit more than a couple of years ago. There is nothing wrong with a good spin about my early retirement, but there is a much better spin in the story about my recognition of my greatest failings. And arrogance and pride are nothing if not failings, to be sure.