We can surrender our life to some crazy climb up some imaginary ladder but in the end what we have really done is surrender the gift of time and opportunity. We trade experience for possessions and before we know it out life owns us rather than the other way around.
It does is good to question some of our assumptions. If we truly look at who’s happy and who’s not happy and we will see there is very little correlation between corporate or commercial success and actual deep enjoyment of life. More money, power or status does not make an experience more profound any more than a larger TV screen makes a sporting even more exciting.
Excitement is excitement whether we’ve won the Stanley Cup in front 20,000 screaming fans or whether we won our beer-league cup and cheered like crazy with our friends—it’s the same brain chemistry— it’s the same experience. Maximum joy is maximum joy. It’s doesn’t matter what we did to feel the joy, it’s the joy that matters.
We all grow healthier when we stop walking blindly along a path built by other people for reasons that have nothing to do with us. We must consciously reclaim our lives. Forget achieving. It is time to engage fully, deeply and profoundly with life like as we did when we were kids.
When the brilliant comic Calvin and Hobbes first appeared my mother howled. Bill Watterston’s genius created a character that completely reminded my mom of me. I too had a stuffed Tiger and I too had a vivid imagination.
I had a lot of fun with just that imagination. It didn’t need upgrades or more batteries or any repairs. It just needed to be engaged and it would generate joy and fascination. Let’s get back to that. Let’s get back to being fascinated. I know I love living that way so I do look forward to meeting you there.
In keeping with the Friday Dose and its offerings, here’s Louis CK to remind us that we don’t have to blindly follow the paths laid out by others.
And finally here is artist Gavin Aung Than visually translating an inspirational speech by Calvin and Hobbes comic creator Bill Watterson. Enjoy:
peace. s
A serious childhood brain injury lead Scott to spend his entire life meditating on the concepts of thought, consciousness, reality and identity. It made others as strange to him as he was to them. When he realized people were confused by their own over-thinking, Scott began teaching others to understand reality. He is currently CBC Radio Active’s Wellness Columnist, as well as a writer, speaker and mindfulness instructor based in Edmonton, AB where he still finds it strange to write about himself in the third person.
