Misery

One day quite recently some friends and I were drinking coffee and having a lovely chat. The sun was shining in all our lives in spite of the cold fall day which had driven us inside.

We never lack for conversation. Never. But after we all checked in and found ourselves in one of those rare moments when we had no overwhelming worries or concerns, the conversation quieted down somewhat. Until, for reasons I can't remember, we got onto weddings.  Then almost immediately we got onto the most dramatic weddings we had attended. Then we got onto the total disasters. Then we were all speaking at once, highly animated, laughing uproariously, exclaiming in horror as each story topped the next. By then, we could be heard to use actual words of competition: "I can top that.",  "This one will slay you." and so on.

What was actually going on? Most of us love story telling. It is part of our humanity. It is part of our definition of ourselves. I think we reveal a lot about ourselves by what we share. It was also humor. Laughing together is good mojo. That's a no brainer. We weren't being mean, much of our humor was entirely self-deprecating. I have mentioned before how much easier it is to describe disaster and bad things than peaceful, calm, quiet, placid, nice things.

Look at Heaven and Hell as portrayed through the ages. How incredibly vivid and terrifying the portrayals and descriptions of Hell are in literature and paintings! And Heaven, well, clouds, harps, shining city on the hill. Ho hum. And yet many people throughout history have striven  through their lives to buy, earn, deserve the life in the clouds beyond the pearly gates. Who gives us a good look at Nirvana? And how does that compare with a deep look at the sufferings of mankind?

This is just observation. Maybe we need to get a better picture of peace and love. Maybe we need to try to paint or describe a perfected world. The, maybe, we can get on with the creation of it.