Maggie's Farm

By Dorothy Fields / Jimmy McHugh, and famously sung by Billie Holiday

Grab your coat and get your hat
Leave your worry on the doorstep
Just direct your feet
To the sunny side of the street

Can't you hear a pitter-pat
And that happy tune is your step
Life can be so sweet
On the sunny side of the street

I used to walk in the shade
With those blues on parade
But now I'm not afraid
This rover crossed over
If I'd never have a cent
I'd be rich as Rockefeller
Going to set my feet
On the sunny side of the street

Excellent youtube of the song as sung by Marie Bryant  - good photography. Woops - youtube cancelled that one. Here's Cyndi Lauper.

There is a Harvard study of life success and health. A quote:

Early wealth and privilege did not predict life success and health of the study subjects nearly as well as the original investigators thought it would. What did separate successful subjects from failures was their level of maturity and their optimism.

The assertion that "Character is destiny" is attributed to Heraclitus, around 500 BC. Read the whole thing.