Wind in the hair...
It's been a really hard summer. Not because of the heat, which has been intense, but because of the other things that have happened. The hurricane really capped it off, but it's been a lot of things.
So tonight, on the way home from an errand of mercy, I just rolled down the windows, opened up the sunroof, and drove like a bat out of hell down Aviation highway. We sit in the midst of certain doom, surrounded by nothing for which we can justify any kind of real hope, a happy and difficult past behind us, a doomed future before us. And yet somehow it is good. What else can we do but to shriek joyous defiance into the hungry jaws of night?
So tonight, on the way home from an errand of mercy, I just rolled down the windows, opened up the sunroof, and drove like a bat out of hell down Aviation highway. We sit in the midst of certain doom, surrounded by nothing for which we can justify any kind of real hope, a happy and difficult past behind us, a doomed future before us. And yet somehow it is good. What else can we do but to shriek joyous defiance into the hungry jaws of night?
posted by Ted Lemon at 6:52 AM
3 Comments:
I sometimes do that in my car.
The only problem is when I get truly thoughtful about the past, present and future, I become very sombre and a complete and utter recluse.
When the incremental process of moving from where we are to where we need to be is so slow that we can't see obvious progress from day to day, I think that's when the joyful defiance comes in. I mean, maybe you understand logically that you can get somewhere, but you can't see it. And logic fades in and out. So for me at least, sometimes the only thing I can say is "goddamn it, I am going to act like there's hope, even when I can't see that there's hope."
There is a well-established principle in psychology that if you ACT as though you believe you are HAPPY/VALUED/[insert any descriptor you please], you will eventually BECOME HAPPY/VALUED/whatever.
Act joyful! Be joyful!
[I often have difficulty applying this principle, myself, so I know how important it is to be reminded of its effectiveness.)
Thank you, Ted.
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