But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
~~ This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (2009)
Two ideas popped up this week that ended up being the same idea brought to life by two very different people. The message from both was simple and profound – peace and contentment are a moment’s choice away.
The first messenger was a bright, shiny, funny client – the best kind of girl that New Jersey can deliver. She’s got that sharp, sardonic kind of wit that signals a close proximity to Manhattan. We were catching up on life when she delivered her killer observation:
I realized that boring and peaceful are just a tiny shift in perspective away from each other.
Boom. Truth delivered in one wise sentence.
Those of us with restless minds and spirits can get caught up with the next new idea; how we’re going to do what we do, but better; or what untold possibilities lie just beyond what we know of our life right now. We secretly admire those who throw over their lives to follow their passions. But what we can miss out on is the beauty that exists in the moments that we’re rushing past.
This same idea, packaged in a very different format, also pinged me on Facebook. A video is circulating that captures the main thoughts of a commencement speech written by David Foster Wallace in 2005. In his speech Wallace, an American novelist, doesn’t lean on the promise of youth, energy or potential to prepare the students for life in the “real world”. Instead he offers the hope of a man who has struggled intimately with his mind.
Wallace talks about the tedium of living with the frustration and routine that makes up most of our lives. He makes it clear that he has lived the boredom, misery and darkness that our minds can default to if we’re not careful. (There’s a sense of the depth of his struggle in the entire speech that is not fully captured in the video. )
He makes the case to choose differently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xmpYnxlEh0c
Now, this is some pretty advanced homework, so take it easy on yourself as you consider taking it on. It’s a case of retraining your brain to see the good in life, rather than seeing the muck. And your brain doesn’t want to be retrained, thank you very much.
As Wallace says, “It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won’t be able to do it, or you just flat out won’t want to.” But the patience and kindness you apply to this will start to lessen the loneliness and pain of those crummy moments in the hot, crowded line-ups.