Act One, Scene Two

If the world is a stage, then I am Shylock in the middle of my sililoquy and my costume is (unbeknownst to me) partially stuck in my ass.

The last thing ANY of us want to feel is vulnerable…out there–all eyes on us,  feeling incredibly exposed.

If you humiliate us–do we not blush????

Humiliation really isn’t the proper word to use here.  I think it’s more of a particularly skewed self-awareness courtesy of external forces.    Now, I really think that’s the key here.   Some people are put in our lives just to hold psychic mirrors up to our faces.   They make us see, feel and become painfully aware of so much.   Namely all that’s right and wrong in our lives.   Like recognizing and acknowledging the huge, gaping voids that have been the obstacles in your life.  You know the ones–you’ve hid them, covered them up with excuses or pills, alcohol or dead-end relationships.

Or you avoided them altogether.   Be thankful for these “personas interuptus”.   Sometimes their presence is fleeting; sometimes they stay a long time and then again, some will overstay their welcome.   Duration is for you to decide, but they do indeed serve a purpose.  

When they’re not reminding you of the issues of your life, they can–if you let them–provide a welcomed reprieve from it.  You’ll recognize them by the fact that you have a  smile on your face.   Yep–that’s what that facial crack is!!!!!   Not just a pie hole.  It’s a representative symbol that you’re happy.  That and the unmistakable glow.

Before these people entered the scene, your happiness was doled out in tiny increments–dispensed by your own hand.   True bliss had been fleeting;  appearing infrequently.   Like ”Brigadoon”, a village that magically appears on the Scottish horizon every 100 years–sans Gene Kelly’s pas de deux across a Hollywood sound stage, of course.   

In the interim, it’s always been your responsibility to find your smile where you can.   

Being happy–that is what it’s all about.   It’s the key but I can’t tell you how to find it.  I don’t know myself.  But I’m convinced, it finds you.   When you least expect it.  

And it’s on those in between moments when it hasn’t found you and you’re desperately looking for it, that I wish I could bottle it up–whatever it is–and mass market a panacea that would cure all the world’s ills but if I did–I am told—that angry Islamic Mullahs, certain militants, terrorists, Klansmen, John Birch Society members, ACLU devotees and even a few American statesmen would be out of work.    You see, hate and disessension are vast employers.    

Bigger than Halliburton.

What am I trying to say here?  Stay hopeful.  Whatever is happening  now won’t last forever.  When it does come around, reach for it, embrace it, welcome it when you can–anticipate when you must.   Be open to surprises.

The map to your life constantly changes.    So do the legends that help you interpret it.    Nothing is static.

Nothing.

And furthermore kids–self police.  Check your work.   Use your cosmic spell check.    Just think how different  Lech Walesa’s life would be if he could’ve spelled “solidarity” correctly

In the long run, you’ve got to earn your happiness. It comes through arrears of faith and dissapointment and happiness lost.   Then in the wink of an eye, it’s the contrary turned positive.   To everything a season.  

And happiness is a lot like season tickets.  Sometimes, seasons are better than others.   A true fan still buys them and does so without guarantees.   You just never know what you’re getting.  It’s the chance we take.   The Risk.

So, gather your courage..pull the costume out of your ass, exit stage left.  If you did your best, no one will even notice the costume gaff.   

Sometimes you must be content to be thought foolish.         

Don’t worry, it’ll all work out.  This existence is a continuous loop of checks and balances.   You’ll be rewarded–no matter what.   It was intentionally created that way.  

Bliss IS the consumate objective for a sucessful matriculation through life.