The Sword of Damocles

Much can be learned from The Three Stooges.
I did a little reading to get at the real story.
"Judge no one happy until his life is over." Apparently this is a familiar theme in Greek and Roman philosophical writing.
That comment struck a chord with me. As much as I am trying to improve my life through my mind (an impossible task I hear you say), learning to live in the now, no regrets, no worries, deep breathing, taking it all step by step, tapping into the real vibe of life and shutting out the bulls**t distractions, I am also trying to avoid superficiality. It's in my nature.
I refuse to be one of these people who pretend to be happy, who tell you everything is great, who project an obviously phony sense of positivity.
They nauseate me.
Be positive but be real.
Judge no one happy until his life is over fits that philosophy.
The story is about Dionysus II, described as a "fourth century B.C. tyrant of Syracuse, a city in the Greek area of southern Italy."
Dionysus was rich and comfortable with all the luxuries money could buy, including court flatterers to inflate his ego.
I need court flatterers. I like that idea. People surrounding me who will pump me up when I am indecisive or too self- critical.
"Joe, you are the greatest human who ever lived. Everyone else around you is a bug, you were born to achieve, to live large and to be in charge. Your creativity and wit are limitless and your aura shines like a thousand suns."
I just added "acquire flatterers" to my list of short term goals.
Damocles was the court sycophant, otherwise defined in 21st century terms as the official ass kisser. Damocles was jealous of Dionysus' wealth and would comment about it all the time. Finally Dionysus asked him if he would like to experience it, see how it felt.
Dionysus set Damocles up on a rich and royal couch and gave him everything he wanted. Food, booze, servants. He had but to raise a finger and he was waited on.
Dionysus also hung a sharp sword over Damocles' head, suspended on a horse hair.
Damocles was partying up a storm and digging it, until he noticed the sword.
This, explained Dionysus, was what life as a ruler was really like.
Damocles revised his opinion, asked to be excused, and eagerly returned to his poorer but safer life.
There is a lesson to be learned there, and a good one. I'm not sure I would have made the same decision, though.
Maybe as a youngster the decision makes sense. You figure you got time, you can find less dangerous ways to make yourself happy.
But at my severely advanced age, knowing what I know, I think I would lay on that couch and eat every delicacy and drink every drop of wine. Command my flatterers to pump me up during every waking hour and to do it subliminally while I slept.
Until the sword pierced my skull.
The way I see it, there is very little chance I will ever experience the sweet liberation of obscene wealth. So if someone is just going to give it to me I'm going to grab it and gamble that my head is harder than the sword.
It is a calculated risk based on my father's lifelong estimation of the thickness of my skull.