Learn Something

        "The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then -- to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing, which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."  (T.H. White, Once and Future King)
       Yes, learning something is one way to cure sadness.  It helps you focus on the broader picture.  It helps you realize that though you are small and insignificant you can grow.  Learning is powerful. It is one of life's true joys.
       Learning something as a cure for sadness has some companions in the list.  Some of the companions are: creating, challenging yourself, giving something and expressing thanks.  It is as though to stop sadness is to force one's mind into action in a positive direction.  It takes a deliberate effort!  It is a decision: to choose action, to choose mercy, to choose kindness, to choose joy and to choose to be happy. 
       The quote above continues:   "Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.  Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn–pure science, the only purity there is.  You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a milliard lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics–why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics, until it  is time to learn to plough."
     Now I ask:  What does learning to plough have to do with overcoming sadness?  To be continued...
   
     

The Voice We Listen To

      Race is an incredible movie on many levels, but the best part for me was the message and lesson about focus and what voice to listen to. The coach told Jesse Owens that they will love you and they will hate you, but when you are out there in the race, you are alone. He was reminding him to think about his goal rather than the opinions of others.
      Then, the following locker room scene was amazing. There was a lot of deafening noise: white guys calling him racially motivated names, the football coach screaming at him, the echoing of all the loud noise and his own coach trying to tell him what to do.  The coach overpowered the other distractions by saying that the only voice he should listen to was his (coach's) voice.

      My job experiences in an urban elementary school, where there are a lot of distractions for my students made this particularly meaningful to me.  Sometimes there are students misbehaving and lots of noise in the hall.  Sometimes there numerous simultaneous distractions for students.  I teach the students to ignore the misbehavior of others, focus on their assignments and responsibilities, and listen to the teacher's voice. When I see students forcing themselves to focus, when the normal response would be to watch the misbehaviors/antics of others or allow themselves to get distracted, I am elated.  I think that the power to focus will serve them well in life.
      There are so may distractions in this world and it is so easy to get distracted from what really matters.  The Bible is full of scriptures to remind us what to think about, what to focus on and what to do.  I could quote about 20 verses on this subject right here, but I will not.  The power of focus is incredibly important and is something I think about often.  But there is something to be considered even more than focus.
       What voice do we listen to? What voice to we focus on?  As a parent, I would like my son to listen to his parents,  As a teacher, I would like my students to listen to my voice and my instruction. As a Christian, there is only one voice that I can listen to.
        "...The sheep follow him, for they know his voice."  That is a great illustration that Christ used to remind us what voice Christians have to listen to.  Part of the response that Christ gave to Pilate, when asked if he was a king, was "...Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."  There are a lot of sounds, a lot of noise, a lot of distractions and a lot of confusion.  I am reminded the importance of the voice we choose to focus on and the voice we listen to.

The Wrong Name

       The name of the movie was like  a fingernail scratching on a chalkboard (if anyone knows what a chalkboard is anymore).   One of the most beautiful words was blasphemed in my mind.  I saw the trailer and felt a cognitive dissonance.  I saw the movie and I felt sick.  The story was interesting, but how could they name it Joy?  The character in the movie never even showed an ounce of joy!
       It was the story of a self-made millionaire who invented the Miracle Mop and became successful through QVC and Home Shopping Network.  Her name was Joy Mangano. The title was given because of her name,of course, but this did not work for me. I wanted the movie to be about joy.
       Her disfunctional family, strong ambition and "rough road to hoe" made the movie made me feel many things, but not joy.  It could have been called Fortitude , Drive or even Stamina, but not Joy.  The movie's story was a lot like Erin Brockovich, only without the cheerful face of Julia Roberts.
       Is joy just a feeling?  I think it is much more.  Is joy just another word for happiness?  I think it is not.  Is joy only something spiritual?  I think it can be physical, emotional and mental, too.
      Can joy come about in a disfunctional family?  I think yes.  Can joy come through fulfilled ambition?  I think yes.  Can joy come when life give us a "rough road to hoe"?  I think yes.
       Christians are supposed to "count it all joy when you fall into various trails, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience..."  Joy can fit with trials, difficulties, dysfunctions and ambitions, when viewed through the lens of faith in Christ. The character in the movie made no reference to Christianity.
       I hate it when a word does not fit.  All the emotional packaging that goes with a word like joy was wasted on this movie.  In this sad world, I hope that viewers of the movie, Joy, do not think that joy was what they were seeing.  Joy is a powerful, special word.  When  "joy" was used to a name a movie without containing any, I felt the emptiness of unfulfilled hope.  Why would a movie called Joy, not be joyful? (Would the Hateful Eight be about eight loving guys?)
       "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver," said Solomon, the Wise.  The contrary is like a pearl in the snout of a pig or a fingernail scratching on a chalkboard.  Word choice is important, at least it was back in the day!