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Find something to be happy about today (Monday December 16th, 2013) [View all]
Whose birthday are we celebrating today?
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Hint #1
Hint #2
Did you guess Ludwig van Beethoven?
Well he was born on December 16, 1770 and would be a good candidate for us "Good Newsers" to remember. We often find good news in the midst of tragedy, people overcoming terrible circumstances to rediscover the joy of life and Beethoven suffered terrible tinnitus (something that I am an expert at, unfortunately) which creates sounds in the ear sometimes called "ringing in the ear" but would be better understood as "train whistle in the ear" making it impossible to hear his own music and driving him to consider suicide:
Around 1796, by the age of 26, Beethoven began to lose his hearing.[47] He suffered from a severe form of tinnitus, a "ringing" in his ears that made it hard for him to hear music; he also tried to avoid conversations. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to typhus, auto-immune disorders (such as systemic lupus erythematosus), and even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. The explanation from Beethoven's autopsy was that he had a "distended inner ear," which developed lesions over time.
As early as 1801, Beethoven wrote to friends describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both professional and social settings (although it is likely some of his close friends were already aware of the problems).[48] Beethoven, on the advice of his doctor, lived in the small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna, from April to October 1802 in an attempt to come to terms with his condition. There he wrote his Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter to his brothers which records his thoughts of suicide due to his growing deafness and records his resolution to continue living for and through his art.[49] Over time, his hearing loss became profound: there is a well-attested story that, at the end of the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience; hearing nothing, he wept
Beethoven would be an apt poster child for those of us who struggle against tedium, banality, pain and angst to find the joy of the day because he fought back from all of that to create music that still grabs your emotions today.
But no silly rabbit today we celebrate the birth of my oldest daughter whose middle name is Hataichanok which in Thai is translated as "heart of the father". I always look up Beethoven's birthday at the beginning of December to make sure I don't muff the day.
Find some joy in your life today, friend.
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