I had the opportunity to read Scott Hamilton's book "The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (even when you have every reason to be miserable)". I had seen this book on the shelves of our local Christian bookstore and had been wanting to read it. I have always been a fan of Scott Hamilton's skating and I was really excited to learn more about his life. While the book is not an autobiography, Scott does talk about his life experiences. He has had many rough times in his life, but he has chosen to be happy. He lists 8 lessons (or keys) that he has learned to be really happy. In each lesson he includes many examples of his life and also how you can apply the lesson to your life. Since Scott is a figure skater, each lesson uses skating as an example. While each lesson does seem like it would be common sense, when you really think about it, you wonder why have I not been doing this?
What I really liked most about this book is that we will ALL face difficult times in our lives and it is how we deal with it that will impact us the most. We can either learn to be happy (in spite of the difficult circumstances) or allow the difficult times to rule (and ruin) our lives.
Scott had every reason to be down on life. He had a mysterious childhood illness that every doctor had given up on him and sent him home to die. He was constantly picked on because he was so small and so sickly. Skating changed his life. After he started skating, he started to get well and his mystery illness disappeared. Skating became his passion and he even won a gold medal in the Olympics! While he had many ups and downs in life, his biggest battle came when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He fought the battle and won and then was hit again a few years later with a brain tumor. He had every reason to be disappointed and to wallow in self-pity and he did get to a point where he was living "in fear of the next calamity that would strike" him. His turning point came after hearing a thirteen-year old cancer survivor speak at a conference. This girl, Shawna Culp, made a statement that changed his life. She said "The worst thing that ever happened to me is cancer. The best thing that ever happened to me is cancer." From that day on, Scott began to look at his "curses" to be blessings. He wrote this book in an effort to share with us how he found happiness and how you can find it too.
