Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared - Buddha
A month ago, a study came out about happiness. Turns out, happiness is contagious and there is "a direct relationship between one person's happiness and another's." If one person is happy, that person's friend has a 15% higher chance of feeling happiness herself. What they didn't study is: What happens if a whole country is suddenly happy? What if almost a million people are so happy that they start singing and dancing to "shout" on the Washington Mall? What if thousands of people across the country gather to do acts of community service and leave feeling the positive energy that comes with working as a community for a common purpose? What if old stereotypes are broken down and people start to feel freer and more alive because of it?
There is a new energy swirling around these days. I saw it at church on Sunday when our pastor spoke of the age of transcendence and people listened with tears in their eyes. I saw it when we sat on the couch, listening to a huge sing-a-long of "this land is your land" on the Lincoln Memorial. I saw it today when over a hundred people, old and young, picked up their shovels and gardening gloves and worked together to beautify the Sherman Oaks Library.
The economy is in shambles. We are still fighting an unpopular war. Every day we wake up to news of failing schools, global warming, terrorism in the middle east, and hundreds of other sad and scary stories. But I'm wondering, what will happen if we can channel this energy, this hope, this enthusiasm, this newfound sense of community spirit? What if, by all feeling joy together, our happiness increases by 50%, 100%, more than that? Joy like that can't help but lift us out of our current state and even spread across the world.
Obama is just a man and he alone can only do so much. But he has started a spark that is quickly spreading. I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes us.
4 comments:
hooray!
for all of our talk about government, society, what you write about here is what it's truly all about. all of the big changes, the real progress, comes from energies like this.
Very well said. Kita, you definitely have a way of capturing emotions with your writing. So glad that it is finally the 20th of January. It really felt like this day would never come. Very big hugs to the Murdock family we all wish we could be celebrating with you guys.
love,
Anne Marie
It's so true--energy is contagious. I like how everyone is truly feeling this sense of oneness, and the overwhelming feeling of hope despite bad circumstances. I also like how he's emphasizing personal responsibility and hope each person keeps feeling the hope and keeps trying to help to make things better, so we can all be happy in a true sense. Great post!
Amen.
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