Attempt to Feel Good Again.
Listen.
I’d like you to try something. It’s a little scary, and your first instinct would be to say ‘Hell no!’ and never read one of my posts again. I understand. But hear me out. It’s something we’ve all been afraid to do for years but I think it’s important that we try.
I’d like you to attempt to feel good about things.
I know, I know! It seems like a mountain that is impossible to climb. You’re probably thinking that it's too soon, that we’re not nearly out of the woods yet. We still have a pandemic and a ton of repairs to make on our country and that wouldn’t even scratch the surface of the problems we have to face. But that’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking you to try and feel good about things.
Call it hope, call it faith, call it sending out positive vibes to the groovy universe. You don’t have to be convinced that things will get better to any degree. This is about you. You’re everyday mood, your work, your thoughts, your conversations with others. Let yourself feel any morsel of goodness out there. The reason we haven’t done this is so long is that we fear that if we let ourselves feel lifted, we’ll inevitably get smashed down from a higher distance.
The keyword is ‘fear’.
Fear is how we’re in this mess to begin with. Fear of change, fear of the other. It is instinctual. But we’re supposed to be civilized and one of the attributes of a civilization is the management of irrational fear. It's an ongoing process, as we’ve learned. Happiness is a decision you make. It's not a goal or a state of being. Even in our first real document as a country, we expressed the notion of the ‘pursuit’ of happiness. I don’t think that was an accident. Life is in motion; always forward. It’s the pursuit that gets us out of bed on shitty mornings, and the acceptance that it’s just a decision we make about our outlook that keeps us sane.
It takes guts to be positive. It takes courage to try to be happy.
I think my point is, among other things, that pessimism is a dead end. There are thousands of changes we want to make but pessimism and inertia will get us nowhere. I’m hardly a history scholar but I did learn quite a bit in college. The one thing you get in that environment is the emergence of patterns when you study multiple historical timelines from different countries. Some are wildly different. Some, pretty much the same crap. I know it's difficult to process, but if you look at the big picture, right now is the best time to be alive. For realsies. I’d have to write another five thousand words to convince you, but it’s the truth. There is only one caveat, and that is the environment and climate change. But that’s not history, that’s science. My premise still stands. The hope for action to save our place on planet Earth as a thriving species rests on our ability to give a shit. If we don’t, well…no one knows. This is new stuff for humanity.
Try to feel happiness when it bubbles up inside you. Try to let hope in if it knocks on the door. Isn’t light the enemy of darkness? Look at the advancements and put the setbacks in perspective. I’ve had a few conversations like this with my daughter. I try to explain to her how huge legal gay marriage is. To them it's pretty normal. Don’t hate people because they’re different, equal rights, obvious…ho-hum. But ONE generation ago, being anything but straight and white and Protestant in this country wasn’t just discriminated against, it could be completely ignored. Like you didn’t even exist.
Things can change overnight. Either they take or they don’t. Remember the racist assholes marching in Charlottesville? Remember how they cowered and apologized and walked all that shit back in shame afterward? Fear can inflict damage but it fades. It just does. Time takes care of that. People don’t want to be shitty if it can be avoided. Letting even a little light and compassion inside is enough to change a person. Or at least, get them to shut the hell up.