Thursday, November 20, 2008

Everything's amazing, nobody's happy.



Money quote: "You're sitting in a chair in the sky."

It's all so true. My big foible is sitting at red lights, and people not going fast enough down suburban streets. To think: I could be walking in November while it snows.

PBS had a marathon re-showing of "The War," an amazing documentary about World War II and its impact on four American towns. One scene in particular spoke to me, and it's when a lady - a little girl at the time - lives in a prison camp run by the Japanese. Her entire family almost starves to death during the War. She says how, when she got home, everyone was complaining about rations and the bad news coming from overseas.

"They just didn't get it," she said.

And boy, isn't that true for folks our age and younger? I've already talked with my grandma about this. I told her that, in a few rare cases, I've never known the kind of want that her generation and, especially, the generation before hers experienced. For that reason, any complaining I do will be consciously kept to a minimum. What right do I have to complain, when hell - it could be a lot worse.

Happiness comes from within, says the Buddha, not from without, and that lesson keeps popping up in my day-to-day life. Thankfully, I'm very content with my situation right now. Life is good. It might not always be that way. But at this time, and at this moment, I can breathe and eat and stay warm and enjoy typing on my Macintosh computer that also, amazingly, can talk to space.

Who can complain about that?

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