Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
We could float among the stars together, you and I.
For we can fly, we can fly:
Up, up and away —
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon:
The world’s a nicer place in my beautiful balloon.
It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon.
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky.
For we can fly, we can fly. (1)
The balloon is such an evocative image. It gently rises in such an ethereal manner up, up and away until it is out of sight, voyaging to far and distant lands. It metaphorically holds our dreams and our aspirations. It exists in the world of imagination. A subject that should be dear to everyone’s heart for it is one of the special human traits that dies unless nurtured and embellished. Albert Einstein tells us (to paraphrase): “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” (2)
We often hear of the negativity of life: its pains, its ailments and its, fumbled, untimely end. Life always has a poorly-timed ending, doesn’t it? There is always so much more work to do; so much left unrealized. It is self-evident, then: “Get on with it – get to work!”
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day. (3)
We live in a culture of death (4) that places tremendous emphasis on war, violence, pain, and suffering and far less on the magnificent beauty and blessing of consciousness. We are seldom lauded for winning the “lottery of life,” are we? The trillions and trillions of bits of matter in the universe, some of it alive, and we became one of the 7.6 plus billion human life forms: wow! Herein, of course, lies the problem. Now that I have received my prize — 80 to 100 years of Earthly time – what do I do with it? The answer is rather simple: something! Awareness astounds us: most people are miserable and deeply unhappy! I am not describing the momentary glimpse of a failed exam or an unrealized promotion, I mean “in general.” Why? The answer sits in a total lack of accepting life’s basic premise: All reality emanates from within.
The way I see the world and see myself is a self-created construct. There is nothing external to me. I do not mean this in a solipsistic way but in the fact that the mind colors the physical reality around us. Try this as an experiment: the next time something truly distresses you (a rude driver, for example), consciously tell yourself that I am now going to change my mood from angry to happy. Watch what happens! Within minutes you will begin to feel better, or you should begin to feel better. Think of the immense power that each of us possesses with this philosophical acceptance. I cannot blame anyone or anything for my life. If I am broken and unhappy, I have accepted and acknowledged everything that has happened to me. I am devoid of hope. My life is thus my fault. The great psychiatrist and philosopher, Dr. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), leaves us with a thought: There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life. (5)
A closing thought: I think it is difficult to accept that my reality is mostly of my own creation. Certainly, from a Platonic perspective, we have this concept of the ideal, the perfect, being something external to me: the perfect life, the perfect relationship — even the perfect job – to name but a few. Ask many people what they want out of life and you will invariably hear, “I want to be rich” followed by “I want to travel around the world.” If you pin anyone and question what this means, however, there are few logical answers. These are increasingly becoming more and more uncomfortable questions in our capitalistic society. Young people are truly perplexed. Due to their access to infinity, their cell phones, they see all. All knowledge exists at their fingertips, but none of life’s wisdom. But it should be there, shouldn’t it? I read that the Internet entrepreneur and the Youtuber are the new icons of our age. It is easy to see why: effortless wealth with no education and no experience, but with expertise in their field (or so it seems). I have a fundamental belief that the cosmos is ultimately fair in spite of these aberrations. All buildings collapse in an earthquake if their foundations are not secure. (6)
To sum up: This week we spoke about my great excitement of life: my life. We can make it grand or, conversely, we can hobble it with unnecessary fears and failures. It is up to each of us to make that choice.
A philosophical question: If I want to be unhappy does anyone really care?
Just for fun—Up Up and Away
This week, please ponder your own unique gift: your life.
Every day look for something magical and beautiful.
Quote: Take time to study yourself in the mirror. That strangely is not you, it is only a representation of you. The “you” sits here, within.
Footnotes:
2) Einstein was talking about his confidence in his creative insight as the basis of his Theory of Relativity, contrasted with empirical knowledge, during the solar eclipse of May 29th, 1919. He was emphasizing the fundamental importance of the creative or imaginative element in the discovery of any new physical theory. As he puts it in his book The Evolution of Physics (ISBN 9-788-8339-0025-4): “Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.”
3) A Psalm of Life: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).
4) The term was first used on March 25th, 1995 by Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) in a papal encyclical or formal religious letter.
5) Finding meaning in difficult times (Interview with Dr. Viktor Frankl)
6) Aaron Swartz, Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist, Is Dead at 26