The Golden Carrot

     Happy Land does not exist. Please take a moment to screech and wail at The Universe. 

PAUSE

Life is not designed to be a broad clown's grin accompanied by cotton candy, balloons and ass kissing 24/7. Americans are preoccupied with happiness and the pursuit of that state. Probably because the word has been abused to the point that the true meaning has been lost.

Happy:  Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

Happiness:  The state of being happy.

The reason this fleeting emotional experience has shape-shifted is because of:

The Pursuit of Happiness:  A fundamental right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence to freely pursue joy and live life in a way that makes you happy, as long as you don't do anything illegal or violate the rights of others. *

People have gotten hung up on "a fundamental right" while completely missing the "live life in a way that makes you happy...just don't do anything illegal or violate the rights of others." There's also that other word, which should be uppercased just so someone pays attention, PURSUIT. It is defined as "an effort to secure. attain or to follow".* Which sounds like a golden carrot dangling just out of reach.

     I offer this in the ongoing series on depression because it is one of the fundamentals of understanding why we live the way we do. 

     Striving for a perceived unattainable is life diminishing.

There are amusement parks built for the specific purpose of entrenching a belief that Happy Land is possible (at least while standing inside the gates after forking over ninety-two dollars). What isn't shown in the advertisements are kids screaming for a toy on gum laden floors, the vomit spewing toddler just off a merry-go-round or the mother losing her shit in the bathroom. So Happy Land is crap. The idea it can be sustained longer than any other emotion, without the aid of drugs natural or man-made is another fairy tale keeping humans busy, pissed, overwhelmed and filled with despair and failure. 

     Someone is blowing smoke up a LOT of asses.

     I suggest cremating the golden carrot. Scatter the pixie dust so that it can no longer dictate how to live. Instead, operate with another approach, one that ought to be taught in schools and mentored in homes. 

     "Live life in a way that brings contentment...as long as you don't do anything illegal or violate the rights of others."

Peaceful coexistence with all aspects of life. Which means work at something that brings satisfaction to you as well as others, live among a tribe who are or could be your friends, see nature in the environment whether it is a flower bursting from a concrete path or an ancient oak in a forest, hug family members to express humanity, listen to people as you would want them to listen, view each vibrant life as useful to the experience of ALL and give thanks daily for the wide range of emotions humans are accompanied with, because each of them are useful in this wild and wacky world.

     The human rainbow spectrum isn't only skin and physical expression, it is also mood and state of mind. Emotions can switch on a dime, influenced by hormones, the weather, beliefs, events, and perceptions. Complicated beings cannot create in a one-dimensional box of happy because it neuters possibility. 

Imagination runs free in a meadow of the encompassing ALL.

#missingRobinWilliams 

#peacefulcoexistence

*Reference: yourDictionary.com