All you really need for happiness–and this is an overabundance, but I include all the items I value–is indoor plumbing, heating/air conditioning, a roof, useful work to do, people to love, health and time to sleep 8-10 hours a night. That should be enough for anyone.
I will add that, as I think I have mentioned somewhere, I have seen heaven three times in dreams (hell once). It is so much more beautiful, happier, than here, that the life of the most privileged person on Earth pales besides a handful of moments there. What do literal and figurative kings and queens do? They worry: about keeping their power. Those around them scheme to get it. Yes, they have perks of office, unique privileges, but none of them amount to much. To be innocent is to be free.
Listen to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMc0ok9_V7Q
The bats are in the belfry
the dew is on the moor
where are the arms that held me
and pledged her love before
and pledged her love before
Chorus
It’s such a sad old feeling
the fields are soft and green
it’s memories that I’m stelaing
but you’re innocent when you dream
when you dream
you’re innocent when you dream
running through the graveyard
we laughed my friends and I
we swore we’d be together
until the day we died
until the day we died
Repeat Chorus
I made a golden promise
that we would never part
I gave my love a locket
and then I broke her heart
and then I broke her heart
Watch Tom Waits. He is such a sensitive soul. It is no wonder he is so notoriously private/defensive in interviews: he is already out there. He doesn’t like it, but it is what he does. Creation is how he deals with his tragedies. He has always felt innocent to me, despite his best efforts. It is comical in a way, for those with a taste for such irony.
There is no better way to destroy a good idea than to push it too far. It is right to be alert, to “fear” God, to remain aware of God. It is wrong to live in fear.
It is right to be loving, but ridiculous to think you can be loving every one, all the time, and that a failure to do so constitutes a failure.
As I tell my children, God, too, has a sense of humor. What loving being can fail to empathize with our frailties, with all the stumblings and to-and-fro-ings to which we are prone on this Earth, which is so resistant to our wishes?
Heaven, in my view, is for most people, except those who are willfully cruel, some of the ranks of which are the supposedly religious. To pervert sacred teachings through hypocrisy is one of the worst crimes, since it damages people not on the outside, which they can endure, but on the inside, which affects their ability to endure.
I am working extremely hard, but woke up today feeling good. May you have a very pleasant day. If it is sunny where you are, enjoy it. If it is rainy, enjoy it. Whoever you meet, try to appreciate what is good in them, and try to be a bit kinder than you normally are. Most of the time this just means actually hearing what people are saying between the lines. More than anything, people want to be heard and appreciated for what they do. This is the most effective form of love in my view.