Inside Bay Area – NEW: ‘Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff’ author dies of heart attack — Seems ironic.
Richard Carlson, the Walnut Creek author who catapulted to national fame in 1997 with the bestseller “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff,” died after suffering a heart attack while on a plane en route to New York City.
The 45-year-old psychologist was midway through a press tour to promote his newest book, “Don’t Get Scrooged,” which tackled holiday stress with his signature mixture of practical tips and clever turns of phrase.
I love it when runners, health food nuts and psychologists die young. Just goes to show that eating tofu, running 8 miles a day and going through life not being pissed off doesn’t make you live any longer then those of us who are not so fanatical. When your numbers up, its up.
Seems ironic.
It is ironic. Sad for his relatives though.
This just reaffirms my belief that god is a practical joker with a really mean sense of humor. All bow to the goofball in the sky.
Me thinks annual physicals post- 40 is not so small stuff…
Reminds me of what the late, great Bill Hicks once said: “Non-smokers die everyday”.
Poor guy. Maybe he shouldn’t have sweated the big stuff either. 🙁
Your compassion is really moving me guys.
Good point David, but this isn’t the forum for sorrow anyway.
It is the quality, not the duration. (Having said that, I still want my threescore and ten).
I do feel for his family but I think I’ll have another beer and ponder this for a while-it definitely gives me some ammo when my wife gives me a bunch of grief about the little things and I get REALLY uptight. I’l probably live to be 135 at least.
Life sucks sometimes and yeah, GOD must be a big jokester (which begs another obvious question…)
May he rest in peace.
# 9 Alix
Been there, done that, a while back.
Hope to be around when you catch up.
He must have had a lot of “big stuff” to deal with.
This seems to happen to all those who say they have the answer to living a long happy life. Look at Robert Atkins, he died of a heart prolem. Yeah, they say it was unrelated to his diet, but it was still a bit ironic.
I mean, how many doctor who tell you to cut back on salt, and junk food are really fit now a days. A lot of them die of stress, bad diets, and plain and simple not practicing your own medicine.
On a side note: I still fell bad for his family, this is still a real tragedy.
You have to remember some people are genetically predispositioned for ischemic heart disease. By the time many of us has a decent physical with cholesterol screening a lot of damage may be done.
First I’d like to express my condolences to his family, and especially his Mom, if she’s still alive. They are the ones who suffer emotionally the most when a child dies before they do.
What causes a person to live a long life? IMHO:
1. Genetics
2 and 3. Attitude and lifestyle.
Some may argue about the hierarchy of 2 and 3. My own parents stuck to a lot of those “new age” spartan diets and regimens, and they are now in their 90’s.
However, my Mom’s father lived to be 96, but he never excercised much as far as I know, and always ate a traditional American diet of meat and potatoes etc. How did he do that? I have no idea, really, but I remember something he said a few years before he passed on: “I’ve lived a good life.”
#3 Meetsy –
It’s a shame you don’t love humanity more than you hate religion.
9. Alix said it best, its about quality not quantity. There is living and there is just existing.
My dad’s mother lived to be 84. When he turned 80, he talked a life insurance company into rolling the dice with him: Huge premium, term life through to his 85th b’day. My sister was livid but he just shrugged it off. Said he figured it wasn’t too likely he’d outlive his mother. He died just after his 84th birthday. I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it. Maybe he set himself up, maybe he was just calm and playing the odds. But Carlson, enjoying a successful career, dying at 45 just before Christmas? Talk about getting Scrooged…
But Carlson, enjoying a successful career, dying at 45 just before Christmas? Talk about getting Scrooged…
A bad deal for his family, sure. But for him? OK, so I’m one of those idiots who believes that we are rewarded for the good that we do in this life, in the next life…
1/ In Japan, they eat a lot of carbohydrates, but they still have an average life span higher then in the UK or the US.
2/ In Sweden they drink like fish and they still live longer!
3/ Iceland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, but they still live long lives!
4/ In Italy, they eat a lot of carbohydrates, lots of fat end they’re still number 14!
5/ In Israel, they’ve lived more or les under constant war since 1948 and people still grow old!
6/ In the Netherlands, they eat tons of fatty chease every year and see no harm!
Face it guys! It’s speaking English that kills you!
CIA World Factbook
Oh, and my condolences go to his family…
What a guy- He helped millions find a way to a better day and life. If some us us could just help few.
Just like so many other exceptional and out of the ordinary people – His spirit was probably needed elsewhere.
you guys are mean who are saying that its ironic, and you love how it showed he should sort of die young.
i know his family very well and i go to school with his daughter.
shame on you you kindof suck @ life and i think YOU should die young
F(*& you
i loved that man so much
may he rest in peace
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FCUCK YOU I LOVE HIM I LOVED HIM I LOVED HIM I LOVED HIM I LOVED HIM
its kindof sad how everyone is kind of making jokes about this
but im never going to read this blog again so what can i do but the kindness that the man had in his heart was amazing. and he will never be forgotton
I agree with quincy! You guys are immature and probably uneducated bastards that are making a joke of this!!!
AND DO YOU GUYS KNOW ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT GOD OR IS THIS JUST ANOTHER UNEDUCATED COMMENT?!?!?!?!? LET GOD IN YOUR LIVES AND HOPEFULLY HE WILL TEACH YOU TO BE MORE SENSITIVE TO PEOPLE AROUND YOU!
Wait until this happens to someone you love or better yet…YOURSELF!!!
I know the comments above were left more than a year ago, but…
quincy and jeff: If you learned anything from Richard Carlson, it needs to be that you don’t wish bad on people who do things like making jokes about his early death. Those jokes are pretty mild, not really meant to be offensive, and are pretty much to be expected whenever anyone who advocates health (physical or mental) dies “early”, partly because it IS ironic, and partly because it DOES illustrate that many of the guidelines we’re presented with, aren’t guarantees that we’ll live as long as we want. Some of the “joking” here is pretty practical–for instance, pointing out that dietary guidelines that turn out to be wrong, help point us in the direction of what really works.
I’m amazed (still) when people who believe strongly in a God, turn around and wish horrible things on people for small offenses like making off-color jokes. It’s a long tradition in many religions to want to do harm to “nonbelievers”, or even people who make a joke, but you’ve got to get past the Old Testament “God as easily-pissed avenger” mentality.
Carlson said “don’t sweat the small stuff”. The kind of jokes presented here are small stuff. Don’t sweat it to the point where you hope the jokers die, or their relatives. At the time you wrote the above comments, you didn’t yet “get” enough of what Carlson was saying.
But many people, when we’re young, often have to go through a phase where they wish everyone who they have a problem with, should suffer. Maybe this is one of those phases–I hope you both have gotten over it.
Hello! This is to John Sawyer…I did NOT wish ANYONE dead nor would I ever do that…I just said “wait until this happens to someone you love or better yet…yourselves.” Maybe that sounded a little harsh, although I didn’t mean that they should kick the bucket,I was just trying to put them in others shoes. And I think that more people need to be put in others shoes these days..because that would make them more sensitive to what they say to other people. I REALLY don’t like others joking about death. It’s not nice.
He was a nice man, father, husband (from what I hear) and he loved helping people. So I just feel like people should respect what he has done in his living years, instead of make jokes about his death.