This got me thinking on my latest existential quandary over my happiness. One thing that the book exhorts is passion. Granted, it's passion about punctuation (which I do happen to have in spades), but passion nevertheless.

 

I'm passionate about a few things: English language in its myriad forms; Dungeons & Dragons; living a good life. Most of these give me a lot of pleasure, and even when they're difficult, it's still a rewarding difficulty, because I'm in it for the long haul, and no trifling trouble is going to deter me. So I figure, if I like this stuff so much, I should definitely pursue it.

 

Actually, in my original conception for this post, I was going to talk about motivational speaking. I'll take a brief detour, because it's a germane hypothetical at this point. During my secondary school years, I got herded into auditoriums (auditoria?) to listen to a lot of motivational speakers--crappy motivational speakers, at that. I can hardly remember their names, except perhaps Dave Pelzer, who was such a giant fruit that I wasn't about to swallow the hogwash he was doling out, no matter how famous he was. Oh, and a guy named "Rich Garza" who gave us football cards or something--football cards of himself. Ridiculous.

 

Well, if I were going to be a motivational speaker (a profession I think is overrated and overpopulated, if I actually needed to state that in writing), I would probably tell people not to back down. None of this "reach for the stars" crap. That's dumb. But in a way, I think my message is similar to the stars thing. Pick something you like, go for it, and don't let people tell you you're less of a person or whatever for liking it. Exempli gratia: I like Dungeons & Dragons. Granted, I never got picked on for it, but it isn't a super-commonplace interest. But I'm absolutely riveted by the stuff. If I want to be happy, I need to pursue it further. Finding what you like and going for it is tough for kids. I hear a lot about the construction of "identity" in my teaching classes. It takes a long time for kids to get together a clear idea of who they are. Completely unhelpful to this process is the "fit in" mentality and people who have to be jackasses about someone who's different. I'm not going to speak to the whole "bullying" can of worms, but the point's there: kids should be encouraged to be themselves and do things that make them happy.

 

Yes, I realize I just sort of condoned furries. I'm working through this. There are some limits on choosing your path and not backing down, obviously--not killing people, et cetera. Perhaps, though, it's not up to me or you to tell someone they can't pretend they're a fox or a hedgehog or whatever bullshit they think. (Perhaps I'm now being one of those aforementioned jackasses--ah, well.) I guess if they really do think they are, whatever. They can stay the hell away from me and still do their own thing. (My caveat to this is the point at which it becomes "popular" or at the very least people may try to "fit in" by pretending they have these tendencies, e.g. being a furry--that's being untrue to yourself, too. Just because the popular kids won't accept you doesn't mean you have to go hang out with the smelly kids by default.)

 

Anyhow, to wrap this up, that's my "ethic of the day": be true to yourself, don't back down, and in the end, it'll be a lot more rewarding (I hope so, at least, for all of our sakes). The end, I guess.