Find Your Joy

Do you need answers?

Do the great mysteries of life weigh on your mind?

I took my daughter to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” this weekend. It was a great movie, although if you haven’t read the book, don’t bother as you won’t have a clue about what’s going on. A big part of the plot revolves around the answers to the mystery of why we’re here and what is the meaning of life. I read the books twenty years ago and it was great to relive the story, this was a tale full of depth and irony and it was DAMN FUNNY!!

I guess I’ve been through enough at this point to throw my two cents worth in regarding the meaning of life, so here it is:

Find Your Joy – Be happy. Share your happiness with others, especially those you love. Happiness is the best and truest gift that you have to give in this world, don’t be stingy with it. The noblest thing you will ever do in a day is to make someone smile.

Don’t Worry – Don’t fret the small stuff, which is pretty much everything when you realize we’re all going to die anyway. Nothing that keeps you awake at night is going to matter for shit in 500 years! Don’t let your worries take away from your happiness – remember that’s the most important thing in this life (at least according to my philosophy).

Choose Well – Pick your friends and lovers very carefully. We all tend to screw this one up and end up spending a lot of time with people that don’t make us happy. Find people whose joy adds to yours and get a big happy-fest going. You’re going to be forced to spend a lot of time with assholes no matter what you do, so keep good friends close to balance the time that you’re forced to spend with people who desire nothing more than to be unpleasant.

Do What You Like – Spend as much time as you can doing something that fulfills you. If you can get this from your career, that’s like winning the lottery. If not, find where your heart is and go there as often as possible. The memories that this gives will be another way of dealing with the assholes that I discussed before.

Love Yourself – Give yourself plenty of credit for the good things you’ve done and don’t be too hard on yourself for your screw-ups. I think most of the assholes in this world got that way by beating themselves up first. You’re not going to be much good to anyone if you don’t love yourself first and you’re not going to spread much happiness which is the meaning of life, remember.

Don’t Get in Too Deep – Don’t worry too much about the deeper meanings of things unless that’s what you like doing, in which case you should become a philosopher (not enough of those around any more, but there’s no money in it either). Solve problems that are fun, but don’t let the fact that you’re not omnipotent bother you…none of us are all that bright or we wouldn’t be here.

There you go…for what it’s worth; you now have my answer to the meaning of life. This and a dollar might buy you a cup of coffee. Still, it felt good for me to put it down. If you have a better or deeper philosophy, I’d be happy to hear it. Better yet, let’s discuss it over a few drinks.

Love to all! ;-{)} Norm.