Don't ya get it?

Today's subject is a cosmic joke, and I'll get to that in a minute. First, though, a video that brightens my day and, I hope, yours, if you haven't already seen it. Frankly, there's just not enough art done in the medium of sheep.




Anyway, on to the joke.
I've been thinking some more about the Deepak Chopra book. (I cannot believe I'm saying this.) And it strikes me that I have been the subject of a huge cosmic joke this past week.
When I started this blog, the idea was to look at all the bad stuff happening out there--the stock market, the unemployment--and match it up with traditional self help literature. The huge dissonance between the two would provide me with miles of material. I'd have a few laughs and perhaps make a few bucks off ads to buy a stove.
As for the pessimism...I did want to quit being so negative, in a way. When you can't convince yourself that the years spent raising kids were worth it, you've crossed some kind of line that was never meant to be crossed. But I knew if I quit being a pessimist, I'd miss the satisfaction of always being right.

So I decided to try and have it both ways. I would lament about my minuscule problems and fears, while sniping at the silliness and hypocrisy that is the self help industry. All the while, I'd be safe on my blogger's perch--delivering judgement and snarkiness from above it all. (Snarkiness always sells, doesn't it?)
In short, I'd be like many in the blogosphere: Grotesque and alone in the dark hours on end, spewing gibberish and leaving everything they touch reeking in malodorous slime.


Then came the big joke. Financial crisis. Uncertain future. For real, not just in my imagination. A cutback--better than a layoff in some ways. Worse in others.
Suddenly, an attitude of detached irony is no longer an option.

I've had a week to deal with it. I've trembled. I've walked in the dark netherworld of attack writing. I've stayed awake worrying. And now that that week is done, I find the experience has been...liberating.

Really. Deepak was right about the whole fear thing. It is an illusion. The bad thing is not nearly so bad as the fear of it was. Now, at least, there are actions that can be taken to save ourselves. I've even stopped checking the stock market, so that must mean some healing is taking place.

I doubt I'll ever become the caricature of an optimist that so infects the writings for sales reps. I'll never be able to jump out of bed, fling open a window and scream, "This is the best day ever! I feel happy, healthy and terrific!" Because that's just not me.
I'll never stop being a smart-ass, probably. But the kiln fires of this week have wrought some kind of change. I am, at least some hours of the day, not afraid.
So bring it, Cosmic Joke God!

Why Is God Laughing? A review

Today I'm celebrating the true beginning of spring break. I slept a full night for the first time in five days, got up and planted some garden, went to the art museum. And I don't have to teach during the break, which is nice. So my head feels like it's clearing out and things look a lot better today.
Time to get back to the purpose of becoming an optimist.

I'll be calling on an expert for advice in the art of optimism today. I have chosen to look at a book by Deepak Chopra called, Why Is God Laughing? (2008, Harmony Books).

This modest tome has been on my grandmothers end table--surely I won't have to sell that table on eBay--for about a week now, and every time I pass, it mocks me. Why is God Laughing?
Obvious answer: "Because He's an a@$%^&!" Because He's mean and enjoys our suffering. Or maybe the conservatives had it right all along. Maybe God is a conservative and is laughing at the idea of this family of liberals getting it's payback. I'm sure there are people out there who would go along with that.

Such was the thinking of the old me--the stressed out me getting along on 3-4 hours of sleep a night. But after a little of the downsizing dust had settled, I picked it up. Okay Deepak. I'll bite. Why is God laughing?

I'll get to that in a second. But first a Deepak Chopra disclaimer:

Chopra has written over 50 books on various spiritual and health topics (this book claims "more than 50" but it's from 2008. There may be well over 100 by now.) Until this week, I'd never read a single one of them. I don't, in general, trust someone who is that big of a publishing phenomenon. Especially not a self-help guru. Sounds too much like snake oil.

If you look under his entry in the Skeptic's Dictionary, you'll find some strange stuff. (Note, in particular, his recommendation for treating cataracts) And then, there was the hilarious bit where Conan O'Brien visited the Chopra Center a few months ago. (You can find it here, but be warned, you'll have to view a short commercial first.)

But I wanted to look at the optimism books to see if they would help me, and Deepak seemed like a good place to start. The book had the word "optimism" in the subtitle, it was about laughing (which is fun in yoga) and it has a forward by Mike Myers, a comedian I like. (It also had an ad for Myer's movie, "The Love Guru" on the last page, so I guess there was a little cross promotion going on.)

At first, I had to keep checking the spine of the book. Yes, there was a Dewey decimal number (200, for religion). But this is mostly a fictional story about a successful comedian (like Myers?) who's visited by the spirit of his recently-dead father. The comic then meets with a mysterious guide who gives him riddles and tests as part of the "process" of discovering his true soul.
The nonfiction section of the book is at the very end, where Chopra identifies 10 principals of spiritual optimism. And it's a good thing, too, because that part is a much duller read.

My philosophy on books is this: Even if it looks like a fair amount of BS, I'll keep on wading through because I've invested a lot of time and there's got to be something I can get out of it. In this case, there was a fair amount of confusing stuff. The comedian used jokes as a role to defend himself against pain, which sounded at first like it was wrong. But then later, Chopra said the soul was playing the role of a human, and realizing this is a key step.

Or something like that.

But there were also some good and helpful things that spoke to me. The first chapter, for example, was about fear. Most people in a dentist's waiting room imagine pain, but only a small percentage actually feel pain. Even so, the imaginary aspect of fear causes people to suffer disproportionately.
Yeah, I can see that. The picture of the girl curled up on the motel bed has been with me a lot this week. The idea of not being able to help your children when they are suffering is just...terrifying to me. But now that we know about the work cutback, this image doesn't scare me so much anymore. It could happen to us, yes. We don't have a lot of close relatives for a fallback. That part hasn't changed. But...I can't explain it. As a thing like that gets closer, you start thinking of solutions. It's not an abstraction. And it doesn't seem so scary.

Also, Chopra's first spiritual principal at the end of the book was, "The healthiest response to life is laughter." This, I have also found to be true. Although my laughter hasn't always been genuine (laughing yoga) or kind, it has always helped me in some way. So I plan to continue seeking out laughter and fun wherever possible.

Why is God laughing? According to Chopra, it's because the concept of human beings believing they are separate from him/her/it, is so artificial as to be comical. Which I admit, makes no sense to me. I'm willing, though, to try to stop being so afraid.