Pair #33 I'm unhappy, you're unhappy, sign here...
As someone who spent quite a bit of time supporting causes of all kinds, I can say I paid my dues to the "We're Pissed And We Are Not Going To Take It Any More!" Club. If there had been an award points program for righteous indignation, I'd be a Life-Long Platinum Club card holder.
So this last week when the theme for the radio show was "Hot Pursuit of Happiness", it really hit me... I always assumed I needed to be unhappy about something in order to change it. In fact, the more angry I was, the better an activist I felt.
I was wrong.
It has not escaped me that we have not essentially changed much in any of the causes I campaigned for using my fists. That doesn't mean things haven't changed at all. Women have more rights. In some places Gay people have more rights. In some places you can live without 'being disappeared' one day. And it doesn't mean that a picture of a starving child plastered on the news won't mobilize the sympathies and pocket books of millions of people for the right cause.
But we can do all of that, anytime we like without the anger. We can change anything we want without being sad, depressed or upset about it. We can do it because we want to. That’s enough.
As my friend Jacob Glass was talking about in his lecture this week: to teach happiness, we need to be happy teachers. I think to teach peace we need to be peaceful people. Jacob is right when he says that somewhere in the midst of devastation somewhere in the world, people are most probably not wishing and hoping that "that angry, depressed guy comes back to help us out.’"
Now I know that I can be part of the solution to any problem, anytime if I want to and decide to.
I think we can change the world. One mind at a time. Starting with our own.
So this last week when the theme for the radio show was "Hot Pursuit of Happiness", it really hit me... I always assumed I needed to be unhappy about something in order to change it. In fact, the more angry I was, the better an activist I felt.
I was wrong.
It has not escaped me that we have not essentially changed much in any of the causes I campaigned for using my fists. That doesn't mean things haven't changed at all. Women have more rights. In some places Gay people have more rights. In some places you can live without 'being disappeared' one day. And it doesn't mean that a picture of a starving child plastered on the news won't mobilize the sympathies and pocket books of millions of people for the right cause.
But we can do all of that, anytime we like without the anger. We can change anything we want without being sad, depressed or upset about it. We can do it because we want to. That’s enough.
As my friend Jacob Glass was talking about in his lecture this week: to teach happiness, we need to be happy teachers. I think to teach peace we need to be peaceful people. Jacob is right when he says that somewhere in the midst of devastation somewhere in the world, people are most probably not wishing and hoping that "that angry, depressed guy comes back to help us out.’"
Now I know that I can be part of the solution to any problem, anytime if I want to and decide to.
I think we can change the world. One mind at a time. Starting with our own.
© 2010 Elese Coit
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Thank you.
