"A mostly sunny day, to some, can look a lot like partly gray." - Eeyore
I was struck a while ago by a post from our comrade in arms Sunni, concerning her recent bout of happiness. What struck me most was that she had to take some very difficult decisions to get happy. It wasn't just something she had managed to stumble across or have randomly occur. Nope. Sunni had to do some serious work to get happy and that got me to thinking, (a dangerous proposition these days).
It's easy to be sad, angry, hurt or depressed. Those come easy to us; genuine happiness, on the other hand doesn't come easy. It takes some work. Look at the news and what it does to us as a prime example. Every time the Powers That Be inflict some new travesty upon us or someone else, our reactions are predictable. We become angered, depressed or are saddened by whatever the pronouncement is. There's rarely any happiness to be found and when it is fleeting. A scant moment of joy.
Many of us become paralysed by the predictable reactions and get stuck in the rut of angered reaction. We let ourselves be swept along by events, due to those predictable reactions. Don't think that The Powers That Be are unaware of this either. They know that they rule over a nation of Eeyore's and Piglet's. Depressed and scared by the futility of events well beyond our control we allow ourselves to me manoeuvred into positions of powerlessness. Even when we manage small victories in whatever our cause may be they are outweighed by the defeats that sap the resolve which remains. Look at the last election cycle or the results of the War on Iraq. Look at those of who have embraced TEOTWAWKI and survival preparedness. We have folks who range from happily preparing but getting on with life to those who seemingly cannot wait for things to fall apart.
Where's the happiness? The Joie De Vie? Must we allow it to be hammered from us by events which are beyond our control? Or must we work all the harder to create genuine happiness and pull from these events that which will place another brick in our own foundations? The latter is my choice. Happiness is preferable at all times, despite the work it takes to achieve true and lasting happiness. It's also necessary for us to be happy to produce the results we wish. This must apply doubly to those of us looking for freedom and liberty. How satisfying will it be if we achieved those goals riding on depression, anger and sadness as our primary steeds? That would make for a miserable journey, I think. Somewhere on that journey we must seek out, find and embrace happiness as our method, rather than the "Dark Side". It has to be preferable to depression and anger.
Looking at the last election cycle there is some happiness to be found. Despite the victories of the Socialist Left we saw that those who have chosen not to participate in the farcical electoral process far outweigh those who do. Clearly anarchistic sanity is winning out through default, despite evidence that Eeyore syndrome may be more to blame. The Socialist Right got a black eye, too! There's always a small ray of sunshine to be captured. We just need to keep them and store them up. No-one likes or listens much to the fearful and those saddened beyond recourse.
Those who wish to further the cause of freedom and liberty must work hard to find their "happy place" and work harder still to stay there if they wish to win. As we well know, happy people are much more productive than those beaten down by the blues. And it's a lot easier to make converts if you're smiling, just ask the Mormons next time they knock on your door at some ungodly hour. That should be our goal over the next year. Finding our freedom loving happy place and staying there. Ignore the power grabbers in the political arena, the merchants of misery and those who would hold power over others. Let's take some time to get happy and spread it around. It's hard work but I think the payoff will be much better in the end. Right, Sunni?
"I tell you one thing, though. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're gonna take this luggage with us! "-Joe Banks
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Libertarian, Happiness, Freedom, Happy Place
