The idea of happiness, never far from my attention, has been on my mind for a number of years and it flared during a conversation with Robin, who dispenses incredible smoothies in Anahola. She was lamenting the state of the world and feeling helpless to make a difference on any front. It was hard to argue because the fact is; we are drowning in and surrounded by impossible odds in a rigged, shooting real bullets, game.
When I was much younger it was easy to be happy. At five, I would entertain my father, coming home after a long road trip, selling fine foods like caviar. My first car, the answered prayer of a high school senior, was a Renault Dauphine, suffering from mechanical dementia. My confirmed graduation from college was my freight train to freedom. My adobe home in the Cerrillos Flats outside Santa Fe, NM was a time of wonder and exploration and those breaths of happiness. The moment love paints me over, every second after is bathed in the hues of a heart gone wild and all things are suddenly possible. The instant of that realization is sublime happiness. While we are on the subject, joining sex with love is peerless, period.
I have one last ode to the theme. I was driving to the Kauai Beer Company today, where I work and sometimes drink. My mind was whirling around a planned motorcycle journey, the details of the week, thoughts of my girlfriend, Laura and a queue of others impatiently waiting their turn Music is always my companion when I drive, a vestige of the Sixties. Without warning, Happy by the Stones began inhabiting the speakers and all thoughts immediately ceased. I cranked up the volume and took a three-minute carpet ride to nowhere in particular, stereo dialysis for the mind.
I have spent years sitting on a cushion, facing a small altar with a strangely sculpted Buddha, a gift from a New Mexico friend. There are snakes and swans adorning this figure. It is a likeness of someone she knew, who actually killed himself prior to her finishing the mold for it. So, I sit each morning with my fragile Buddha and a favorite resting place is trying to find some balance in a world that has been hijacked by powerful forces.
I think the wider our circle gets, the more we are exposed to the blemishes that are part of our nature and it upsets some people more than others. Babies are easy to please, but if you have taken the time to read this far, it is likely more complicated in your world.
Each day, I get my journalism fix from Common Dreams, a compilation of progressive writers perspective about flash point issues, none of them happy ones. Here is a thumbnail of headlines from their week in review, March 7th:
Fifty Years On, Gains Achieved by Those Who Bled in Selma Are Under Attack
US Ground Troops in Syria? Top Military Official Doesn’t Rule it Outy
On Climate, Humanity Must Rise Up Against Collective Shrug of Fatalism
In Ferguson, DOJ Probe Only Confirms What Community Has Long Known
Now , I am going to do both of us a favor. It would be effortless to compile a list of all that is ripping up so many of us inside. It’s easy to become distraught over the way things are in the world and that is the point. We have to make a concerted effort to be happy and that is the strongest defense against feeling helpless. I know I owe it to myself to savor the sweetness in life as much as possible. No, it doesn’t cure any ills, but it is a solid way to begin and it is within the reach of us all. The next step from there is kindness, treating others with compassion.
Please, I don’t know what there is to say about the millions of people suffering unspeakable treatment beyond my ability to ever understand. There is so much to be done and I am only talking about a small, nearby achievement.
If we are peaceful.
If we are happy.
We can smile and blossom
Like a flower.
And everyone
In our family,
Our entire society
Will benefit
From our peace.
– Thich Nhat Hanh