I paraphrased Malcolm X the other day to a friend and said “No one will give you happiness, you have to take it.” What Malcolm X actually said wasn’t about happiness as much as justice and equality, but I think the underlying philosophy is the same. The only one who can make our own lives better is ourselves, and if sit around waiting for someone else to do it, or put the weight of the improvement on someone else the only thing we get is older and more disappointed.
Saying that, knowing it, and doing it are all very different things. It’s not easy – just figuring out what you need to make you happy can be the hardest part. Most of us are brought up thinking if you follow the rules and stick to plan A, B, or C for X number of years we’ll eventually be rewarded with happiness, and if we’re lucky we’ll steal a few glimpses of it now and again until it finds us. Like magic, *poof* one day we’ll just be happy. Of course it doesn’t work that way and until we know what makes us happy, we won’t have any luck grabbing hold of it. There’s endless things that others will offer to us, things that might even make them happy but that doesn’t count. There is no substitute for knowing for yourself. I’ve learned a hell of a lot about myself in the last few years but I’m pretty sure I’m only just beginning.
Like Jules in Pulp Fiction I’m tryin’ real hard, maybe not so much to be the shepard but at least to see the enlightened path. Viva la Revolution.
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