GET YOUR HAPPY ON! - a meliorist worldview

So, folks, I’m getting put through the ringer here by an anonymous commenter TFR. He/she is writing some thought provoking stuff too. Clearly, nothing I’ve been writing here is going to win me a Pulitzer. I’m just sharing my thoughts, which would otherwise rattle around inside my brain like a pinball. I write extemporaneously and from the heart (either before or after long work days and little sleep), but I really appreciate what the commenter has to say. And I hope TFR continues to be a loyal reader and commenter.

That having been noted, I don’t think the commenter has much of a sense of humor and probably has a habit of taking things out of context (typical of these armchair pundits), but I still appreciate what TheFirstRazzer is trying to tell me.

I need to step up my game. Considering that I’ve only been writing these blogs for a month now, I think I’ve been doing pretty well. Hemingway only wrote 500 words a day, and my blogs are only a small portion of what I diurnally commit to paper. Orwell wrote that he wouldn’t write if he knew of a better way to expell the demons that plagued him; that’s sort of how I feel. Still, I’m not Hemingway, and I’m definitely not Orwell. Nope, I’m just a shlub with literary logorrhea.

TheFirstReader is doing a great job of keeping me on my toes, because I really do need to be more serious about some of my blog entries here. I wrote a weekly column for my college newspaper, and I’ve been out of practice writing for the public. Yet, my readership is growing, and I appreciate all of your interest and curiosity. I have no intention of boring you (but I do want to waste your time).

One of the secrets to long-lasting happiness is learning how to let go of the past and appreciate the moment. Chögyam Trungpa , one of my favorite meditation teachers, said that the goal of meditation was to waste time. The path itself is the goal! Wrap your mind around that one, dear readers!

Blogging is a great experience, but it’s also dangerous. I have left myself and my ego exposed, and I actively court all comers to take their best shots at my thoughts. I would not be able to do this if I held onto and fed my ego. One must sublimate through meditation and prayer.

I wonder why TFR compares my even-tempered joyful approach to life (in the face of troubled economic times and vast global devastation) with the attitude of a “middle school girl.” I hate to sound reproachful, but don’t teenage women have enough problems without comparing them to me?

My happiness extends from an inner peace that I have found through years of soul searching, meditation, community activism, and repairing the years of bad karma I had accumulated earlier in my life. My goal is a permanent sense of self-contentment, but in truth, I can never be truly content as long as there is suffering in the world. Right now, I hope to find some solace in the fact that I have tried and that I will continue to offer my message.

This life is precious. Each moment is precious. My friends, don’t waste your few fleeting moments with anger and negative emotion. Don’t curse others for “wasting your time.” Thank them! Be good to yourselves and each other. I love all of you very much, especially you TheFirstReader… if that is your real name. [insert dramatic music]

I will be on vacation in rural Kentucky for a week. I will try to find access to a computer. Please wish me luck on locating a broadband connection.

Haw! Fie! Zounds, I say!

After two days of blogging about the inanity of gun violence, the Supreme Court has overturned a decades long ban on handguns in our nation’s capital , and it has me hot under the collar — so hot that I couldn’t concentrate.

I recognize the Bill of Rights seems to guarantee the right to bear arms, but hiding behind the Constitution when thousands of innocent people are getting killed by stolen guns seems foolish to me. More guns = more killings, it seems a common sense equation ignored by too many people in power. I hope and pray that this judicial decision does open the door to an even greater surge in gun violence.

I decided to get away from the news before I became even more frustrated.

I had some Netflix DVDs that I decided to take to the post office. I quickly checked CTA Bus Tracker to see when my bus (the 50 Damen) would arrive. The website informed me that it would arrive at my apartment building in 2 minutes.

Great! I thought. Just in time. I ran downstairs to catch my bus. The 50 was on time, but I wasn’t. I watched my bus sail southward right before my eyes.

No big deal. I’ll just walk to the post office, and catch a bus along the way. As I made the mile-long journey (with a jazzy glockenspiel soundtrack going in my head), two No.50 buses passed by me in the opposite direction. I am a brisk walker so I thought nothing of beating the bus to my destination.

After dropping my envelope off at the post the post office, there was no bus in sight so I immediately turned around and began walking the other way (north).

It is over 80° outside in Chicago right now; it is sunny and humid, so I was sweating a little bit. It takes a lot of energy to move around someone my size, so I was getting a little hungry too. I wasn’t wearing my sunglasses or sunscreen. As another southbound No.50 passed me going the opposite direction, I started getting a little worried about skin and eye cancer.

I walked two miles before seeing a bus heading my way, and by that time I had already arrived back at my apartment building.

I left the apartment building to get rid of my frustration with a power walk, and I just picked up more frustration along the way. Life is full of irony.

The only sure-fire method of eliminating frustration that I have found is a two part method: surrendering to the will of the Universe (or the will of God, if you prefer), and meditating with an empty mind. The method takes years of practice to master; however, meditation at the beginner level is surprisingly easy.

Be easy on yourselves and each other, my friends. The world is hard enough. There is no sense in making harder.