Yesterday, I had a good day. This is a time acknowledged by everyone and should be benchmarked — noted as a point of meaning — I believe. We don’t often get a really fine day, do we? I awoke early, before the alarm in fact, and felt refreshed. As I did my yoga, thoughts of righteousness and prosperity washed over me. The negative, for an instant, tried to intrude. I had a momentary feeling of terror that perhaps I had misplaced a file. A cursory look into my briefcase attested to the fact that my memory had served me admirably. The file was still in its proper place: all was well. As we age chronologically, the mind is strengthened by happy days and positive memories. And, we are not to forget, this is in the most proverbial of senses.
Your mood will change
Isn’t human nature fascinating? You are in the throes of despair – a lost love, a failed interview, a dearth of money or a surfeit of angst, etc., etc. Then something occurs: you receive a wonderful email, someone smiles solicitously, you are blessed by the wind and the rain, you wake up refreshed — whatever it is — and suddenly, once again, you are thrust into the bosom of happiness. This suggests that one of human existence’s greatest pillars – happiness – is real and intrinsic to us all. We are all naturally happy as opposed to morose. As is oft stated, one definition of happiness is “the joy you feel in doing what you love in the service of yourself or others.” Hopefully, the latter is more important than the former.
Universal Truths
I am in awe of universal truths. They are never ephemeral. Try as you might, they are impossible to break or alter. They are just true. The one that my grandfather continually reinforced was that “You create your own reality.” This, of course, does not mean that you can necessarily alter your physical reality. I can improve it, but a radical change is often difficult, to say the least. My mental state, however, I can change. The emphasis here is on the “I” – I can change – there is no one else who changes me but me. I do this by altering my reality – the way I see the world. We have the severe example of Dr. Frankl in the death camp. (1) He changed his perception and survived when most didn’t.
Can you feel the rain?
Sometimes I feel like one enormous “stick in the mud.” I am convinced that this is how that thing called age begins. Ask anyone over fifty and they will tell you that age is not in your physical body but in some cerebral place between your ears. I used “to scoff” at the adage, “You are only as old as you think you are.” It is pointedly true but you have to qualify in chronological years to understand it. Socrates, perhaps, said at his trial, to paraphrase, “I know that I know nothing.” (1) As I approach his age (he died at seventy), that does not sound like such a useless tautology. (2) It is true, but many of us, as our hair whitens, submerge ourselves in our own smugness and think we know something when we don’t. Any trifling glance at most political statements and this belief will be but reinforced.
Relationships are not easy
I am sure this is a very common experience: we slowly begin to open our perceptual eyes at twenty or so and quickly come to realize that there are many other forms in the world. Some appear to be inanimate like rocks or mountains or the sky, and others are animate and scurry, jump or fly about. Whatever their agitation, we quickly comprehend that everything is separate and distinct from me. A freshet of fear and loneliness is presented — then it calms and then it dissipates. You realize that you are alone in the world.