So, I am on the Bus -- get that? Bus. To DC.
Why?
Well, my best pals are renewing their wedding vows. And I am not going to miss it.
This is my friend Cyndy, who produced both seasons of my television show.
Who took my class and changed her marriage. Who danced with me on the lot at Universal City and made sure I got hot pink couches on the set.
Despite the fact that the world is in chaos, the economy is tanking, the presidential race is preoccupying our brains, Cyndy has decided that her marriage, her man, her relationship are all magnificent enough to take time to celebrate.
I mean, c'mon, there is serious stuff happening out there in the world. Seriously.
So how does pleasure fit in? How does celebration make sense at a time like this?
Or does it?
Is it cool to party while the world is so unstable? Is that the most relevant response?
Is that being responsible?
Well, let's look it over.
I am not the usual 'bus' profile. I consider myself more of an Acela or airport kind of girl. Yet, here I find myself, on the Jersey Turnpike. I stay at the Bethesda Residence Inn, where I might have formerly chosen a Four Seasons. We pack breakfast stuff, to save money on meals. I am all about the metro -- no taxis. Why? Because conservation breeds generosity. If I am careful about what I spend, I will have more to
save and more to give.
And because it feels good to be precautious.
But, why go at all?
Why not be even more conservative? Just stay home?
Well, it is my conviction that the only thing that we, as humans, have in our control is our ability to celebrate, bless, give gifts, create beauty and joy, and both experience and generate pleasure. That's all we have power over, in a day.
How much joy can we make, how much pleasure can we create?
I look at it as my greatest responsibility.
To celebrate, honor, bless and glorify.
In fact, it is my conviction that when we forget these things in our own lives, it is reflected in the world at large. When we forget to honor all that created us, when we forget to celebrate the delicious, transient, fragile gift of life, when we forget to offer our poetry, our willingness to dance, to sing with gratitude at the gift of life itself, then there is a huge cost.
The penalty of ignoring the ecstatic celebration of life is visible all around us right now, in the world at large.
If we do not savor each breath and give thanks for the privilege of it all, there are serious consequences.
Martin Prechtel says, "Humans cause wars and revolutions, ethnic cleansings,
and epidemics by forgetting what gave them life."
Each of us has the opportunity to remember.
Right now.
To choose to celebrate, to choose to honor, to fall on our knees in gratitude and sing our silly song of ecstasy, for the privilege of this day, this time, this breath.
Don't miss the chance.
Even if you gotta take a bus, pack breakfast and stay in the Residence Inn.
Even if you throw yourself a wedding, seven years after you got hitched.
Maybe, it's even like this -- the world requires your celebration, to exist at all.
Could your pleasure be that important?
What do you think?
