Monday, July 12, 2021

CHEER SOMEONE UP!

 

I know, I know -- Nikki is of the canine persuasion, and receiving a bouquet of flowers did not actually cheer him up, as you can see from his skeptical glance at my offering. But he got a cookie for sitting so nicely, and that always lifts his spirits. And I cheered myself up with this silly idea.

"CHEER SOMEONE UP!"
Does that sound like a profound Buddhist teaching to you? Maybe not, but that's what I took away from the dharma talk I listened to the Saturday before last. And it has stayed with me.
The speaker, Norman Fischer is one of my favorite teachers. He's very down-to-earth -- as is fitting for the founder of an organization called Everyday Zen.

Norman titled his talk "What is the body?" I confess that, while I experienced a few moments of enlightenment about my body, it all evaporated as soon as the talk was over. A not uncommon occurrence with me.
BUT what he said when he was DONE with the body business really struck me. He talked about the fact that there are so many huge social issues that we're struggling with right now. It's easy for a conversation with a friend to spiral into a litany of despair. Norman said something like:
"It's hard not to feel overwhelmed by the state of the world. So I hope you all are keeping up your meditation practice, because your practice helps to cheer you up. And YOU need to be cheered up yourself so that you can CHEER OTHER PEOPLE UP!"
Cheer someone up. It's embarrassingly mundane, simple-minded, platitudinous. And yet it opens me to startling images of jumping up and singing and dancing, to disrupt the descent down that spiral of despair.

Or sending amusing postcards.... This is my favorite awake-at-3am-haunted-by-catastrophic-fear activity. I feel that postcards are highly underrated as a means to save the world. A nice picture postcard cheers up the sender when she writes it and the receiver when she.. well... receives it. Not to MENTION all the unknown people along the way who might have read the postcard and been cheered/amused/moved by it.

Cheer someone up, dammit!

I'm not talking about IGNORING the multiple crises we're facing. I should hope you would know that by now. Activism is the true antidote to despair. But perhaps cheering people up is also a form of activism. We KNOW we're in big trouble. We don't need to continually freak ourselves out about it. We need to join with others to take action. AND we need to have a good time whenever possible. THEREFORE, we need to cheer others up, so that we have someone to have a good time with!

&.....We need to celebrate our victories!
Speaking of which, how about .....
THE END OF TAX HAVENS!
All the big countries at the G-20 meeting in Venice have agreed on
a minimum corporate income tax of 15%
to deprive international corporations of the ability to avoid taxes by setting up their headquarters in no- or low-tax countries!
Isn't that just the finest and most improbable thing
that could have happened?!?
The chief financial officers of the biggest countries
deciding to rein in the corporations?!
And why did it happen?
Because Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury
of the United States, made it happen!
And who appointed Janet Yellen?
President Joe Biden.
And who elected Biden?
Millions of us, with an enormous amount of effort.
And why did Biden appoint such an enlightened
& powerful woman as Secretary of the Treasury?
Because our strong progressive movement
has been on his ass since the day he was nominated.
Thank you, Janet Yellen!
&
Congratulations to all the dedicated progressive activists.
DEMOCRACY WORKS IF YOU WORK IT.
or as Winston Churchill said:
"Democracy is the worst form of government –
except for all the others that have been tried."

Dear Bloggelinis:
ARE YOU CHEERED UP YET?
Terry
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