Friday, March 15, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Moments of Bliss
I read this post from the Joseph Campbell Facebook status update (yes, you can learn something from Social Media), and it made me think:
We are having experiences all the time which may on occasion render some sense of this, a little intuition of where your bliss is. Grab it. No one can tell you what it is going to be. You have to learn to recognize your own depth …
The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you really are happy — not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what I call “following your bliss.” -- Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, with Bill Moyers
I thought about the last time when I was really happy -- deeply happy. It was just last week, and it lasted well into the evening even after working a 16 hour day. I talked to a friend on the phone and gushed about teaching. My friend, Harry, said, "You sound so incredibly happy!" ... And, I was. Deeply happy. I knew my bliss. It didn't have to do with being in love, or having children; although, I love my children deeply (almost painfully). This bliss was regardless of struggling to pay the bills, or taking care of my cat who was dying slowly of fibrosarcoma, or having a family that puts the FUNK in dysfunctional. My bliss is doing this: teaching something that I care deeply about. One word: Poetry. I taught The Waste Land and a couple of poems by Ezra Pound to my Comp II class.
Most of the two classes could have cared less about TWL or Pound, but in that simple act of teaching something I was passionate about I experienced bliss. Ever since discovering Joseph Campbell during my undergraduate years at Our Lady of the Lake (THANK YOU, Dr. Bob Gibbons!), I have tried to "follow my bliss." Part of that bliss is education, namely the pursuit of this (part elusive, part painful) Ph.D. Most of you who know me know that attending college is one of the things that I always wanted to do; however, for most of my life that bliss seems unattainable. I was busy trying to stay afloat, or raise children, or work on a failing marriage/relationship blah blah blah. John Lennon said that "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." Indeed that is true.
For the first two-thirds of my life, I was so caught up in survival mode that I never considered that there was bliss. For me, during those 'salad days', it was hard enough just meeting basic needs like a roof over my head, or food to eat for both my cat(s) and I. Bliss seemed like one of those things I would never have (like owning my own home, being financially solvent, having peace of mind). Bliss was a luxury for those Benz-driving celebrities who never had to worry if they had enough money in the bank to pay rent, or the light bill. Even though I struggle with both of those things, even now 10 years after finding what I thought was my bliss, school was the best thing to ever happen to me.
Yeah, I complain about douchebag professors, or supervisors with sawdust for brains, but I never (yeah, NEVER!) regret going to college. Yes, I'm in debt up to my ears. But, like I tell my friends, "I have a nice house and car inside my head" where all that college-earned knowledge is stored. I do regret not starting earlier. Instead of focusing on that regret, I try to enjoy that bliss, that high, that sense of joy and pass that passion on to those I teach and tutor. I hope that they, too, find their bliss. You never know, these 'young'ins' might find Ezra Pound and The Waste Land as cool as I do. Never stop hoping. Never give up your bliss.
We are having experiences all the time which may on occasion render some sense of this, a little intuition of where your bliss is. Grab it. No one can tell you what it is going to be. You have to learn to recognize your own depth …
The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you really are happy — not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what I call “following your bliss.” -- Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, with Bill Moyers
I thought about the last time when I was really happy -- deeply happy. It was just last week, and it lasted well into the evening even after working a 16 hour day. I talked to a friend on the phone and gushed about teaching. My friend, Harry, said, "You sound so incredibly happy!" ... And, I was. Deeply happy. I knew my bliss. It didn't have to do with being in love, or having children; although, I love my children deeply (almost painfully). This bliss was regardless of struggling to pay the bills, or taking care of my cat who was dying slowly of fibrosarcoma, or having a family that puts the FUNK in dysfunctional. My bliss is doing this: teaching something that I care deeply about. One word: Poetry. I taught The Waste Land and a couple of poems by Ezra Pound to my Comp II class.
Most of the two classes could have cared less about TWL or Pound, but in that simple act of teaching something I was passionate about I experienced bliss. Ever since discovering Joseph Campbell during my undergraduate years at Our Lady of the Lake (THANK YOU, Dr. Bob Gibbons!), I have tried to "follow my bliss." Part of that bliss is education, namely the pursuit of this (part elusive, part painful) Ph.D. Most of you who know me know that attending college is one of the things that I always wanted to do; however, for most of my life that bliss seems unattainable. I was busy trying to stay afloat, or raise children, or work on a failing marriage/relationship blah blah blah. John Lennon said that "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." Indeed that is true.
For the first two-thirds of my life, I was so caught up in survival mode that I never considered that there was bliss. For me, during those 'salad days', it was hard enough just meeting basic needs like a roof over my head, or food to eat for both my cat(s) and I. Bliss seemed like one of those things I would never have (like owning my own home, being financially solvent, having peace of mind). Bliss was a luxury for those Benz-driving celebrities who never had to worry if they had enough money in the bank to pay rent, or the light bill. Even though I struggle with both of those things, even now 10 years after finding what I thought was my bliss, school was the best thing to ever happen to me.
Yeah, I complain about douchebag professors, or supervisors with sawdust for brains, but I never (yeah, NEVER!) regret going to college. Yes, I'm in debt up to my ears. But, like I tell my friends, "I have a nice house and car inside my head" where all that college-earned knowledge is stored. I do regret not starting earlier. Instead of focusing on that regret, I try to enjoy that bliss, that high, that sense of joy and pass that passion on to those I teach and tutor. I hope that they, too, find their bliss. You never know, these 'young'ins' might find Ezra Pound and The Waste Land as cool as I do. Never stop hoping. Never give up your bliss.
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