Hot Pursuit

I spent many years of my life with the IF and WHEN people.These are the folks who have every intention of being happy if certain conditions are in place or when some goal is reached. In short, these are the people who’re never happy; the folks that are in hot pursuit of happiness without realizing that the pursuit itself is the death of joy. Apollinare once said, ” now and then it is good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” While this seems simple enough, it takes a complex set of mental gymnastics to overcome the conditions and skepticism that arises. First we must realize that all of the important things in life defy definition. I once challenged a friend to take three index cards and define three things in 25 words or less. The three were love, happiness and success. Of course he couldn’t…not to his own satisfaction. These are states of being and they change constantly. Often, today’s love, success and happiness are tomorrow’s loss, failure and misery.

Happiness is the ultimate moveable feast. It is no wonder that great writers have suggested that each state has a quality of madness built into it. Shakespeare says,”the lunatic, the lover and the poet are of imagination all compact.” Twain is more direct when he suggests that, ” sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.”

Then there is the old nemesis of well earned skepticism. After all there are always good reasons not to be happy, successful or in love. Can we enter these slightly mad states by pursuing them? Probably not. We can develop our benign madness, I think. We can lose our fear of being silly and lean into the absurdity of being happy now despite all of the world’s pains and trials.

Some years ago , I was waiting for an MRI after a cancer diagnosis and I must have looked a bit sad because an old fellow sitting next to me asked me what’s wrong. “I have cancer”, I said thinking that would explain everything. The old fellow broke out into a storm of laughter and I was angry. “I don’t see anything funny about that, ” I said and gave the old coot a scowl. His answer was the craziest -and most unexpected-thing that has ever been said to me . ” Son, I have cancer of the liver, cancer of the spleen and there are spots on my lungs, in my bones and in my brain…aint that a bitch !”His laughter increased as he told me this.

At the time I thought the man was crazy, rendered goofy by chemo and radiation. Later I realized that I was in the presence of an enlightened being who chose to be happy in spite of everything life could throw at him. He chose to be happy…and that was his madness.

As I sit here today, I am beginning to think that the insanity of happiness is a matter of choice. It is not the result of a pursuit and it doesn’t live in the mapped area of our day-to-day geography. It is a choice that we all have.

So we must cultivate our madness through play, willingness and a highly developed sense of the absurd. Right this minute , I am happy. I am drinking an excellent cup of coffee and listening to Solomon Burke…what could be better. Stay crazy as much as you can.