Despite being legally blind, half deaf with a bad back and bad knees, being in debt and not knowing if I’m ever going to be able to make a living as a writer again; despite all that, I’m happy.
I’m happy that I celebrated our fourteenth wedding anniversary yesterday with my dear wife, Leslie, who has upon many occasions told me I was more trouble then I’m worth. I am happy with our home and the paths that wind through the woods around it, even though both my wife and I fear we may lose it.
Needless to say, I have not always been this happy. I have at many times in my life been suicidal. Thankfully, I did not act on that inclination.
But I can’t say that I’m clueless as to why I‘m in a state of bliss. I’m sure a psychoanalyst would say I’m suffering from grandiosity or some sort of delusional disorder, and I might well be. Be that as it may, my current peace of mind came about after I made the unorthodox decision to disassociate myself from those with whom I often disagreed. To be more specific, I took a cutting axe to my friend’s list on facebook. All those “so-called” friends who wanted to constantly attack my politics are now gone. But wait a minute. I don’t want to sound like I’m some virtuous creature free of sin and guile, with only good thoughts toward my opposers. It’s just not true. I’m as guilty as they are for making smart-aleck jabs at them on their facebook page when I've disagreed with a political story or statement they posted. Absurd isn’t it? Yes it is. It’s absurd that I would let bad vibes into my life or even initiate them because of a silly political ideology. But then again, prior to W.W.II., some might have said it was absurd to argue about Nazism. Whether these new Right Wing/Left Wing politics that confront our daily lives in America are on that scale, history shall measure, but either way, I admit that at first glance, it might appear radical of me to cut ties with so many people I once called friends. But it’s not really. That’s just the way people are. As the old saying goes, birds of a feather stick together. Even the Old Testament prophet, Amos, asked, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” The obvious answer is, “no.” That’s why there are different denominations within Christianity; that’s why there are different religions. People who are going to be arguing cannot coexist peacefully. So is facebook a religion then? It is certainly a community. All religions have a congregation of some sort, and a congregation can be described as nothing other than a community. And most all world religions share another thing in common, they all teach that happiness is found by loving your fellowman. Whether or not facebook is a religion, I don't know, but it does expect everyone to abide by its social norms. People on facebook refer to their friends as their facebook family. So I suppose in order to be a happy facebooker, you'd have to love your facebook friends.
But I broke the cardinal rule, didn't I? I didn't love my fellow facebookers. I dropped ‘em like hot potatoes and have been a peaceful, happy person ever since. I have reached a conundrum, an impasse. Could it be that my current state of happiness has come about because I stopped loving my fellowman? Can I have happiness if I love some and omit others? Maybe I just lost my religion. I hope Murphy is not religious; l hope he has dropped me from his friend's list and that he leaves me alone. I'm happy and I want to stay that way.
Happy trails, Murphy, may we go our separate ways.
And now I leave you with....the Plumlee Woods
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