If that's so, the Great Emancipator may have been an even wiser judge of human character than I thought. A study was done in which two groups of people were to get jobs at a particular firm. The other group was told nothing but to be themselves. The first group had more job satisfaction and, you guessed it, all-around happiness than the second. Studies on humor and its effect on the health of critically-ill patients showed that those people that laughed the most had the best chance of being healthy.
People like to be cared about.
Of course not. And the newspaper doesn't really help. Or at least, give yourself a shove. Try approaching a bad situation by forcing yourself to smile. I was pulled over for speeding recently.