Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Key

The key to happiness…seems to be coming up with people.

I find this, and it is not workable: if I get to some sort of functioning middle ground, all is well.

But adulthood is not like that.

I had one of those early childhoods that was very serene. Lots of family. Very reliable feeding schedule. Simple days. Repetitive days. Any surprises were quick and quickly dispatched.

Many people look for that “great moment” when everything disappears except for some magnificent grandiose pleasure. Those are fun. But they don’t last so I do not go looking. Plus, they stink of escapism and addiction. Of course, the troughs, no one goes looking for them (except for deep neurotics) and they, thankfully, do not last either. But the middle ground, you can make that last for a very long time. And it is pleasurable. Some Buddhists find it.

But then, I often find myself saying, “Fuck the Buddhists! They’re just afraid to really take a chance.”

So I ride between taking chances, because you have to, and then retreating back to middle ground. Perhaps taking chances and not worrying where you land is the middle ground…


Bunions, ugly shoes, irregular sleep, people banging into things.

2 comments:

Joe Jubinville said...

It took me a long time to appreciate the "middle ground", the temperate zone, which I now think of as the the most exquisitely balanced, fruitful, and consciuos track of the universe which we inhabit.

Don Cummings said...

You know I think you're the grooviest, Jeaux.