I couldn’t have expressed it better than one of my favorite writers Tom Robbins did in an interview from 2000:
…you’ve traveled quite a bit.
I do travel. You have to keep moving otherwise you’re a target.
That’s cynical.
Cheerfully cynical. My view of the world is not that different from Kafka’s, really. The difference is that Kafka let it make him miserable and I refuse. Life is too short. My personal motto has always been: Joy in spite of everything. Not just [mindless] joy, but joy in spite of everything. Recognizing the inequities and the suffering and the corruption and all that but refusing to let it rain on my parade. And I advocate this to other people.
Thank you for the reminder, which I need far too often these days.
It is good guidance. I began actively working to think this way in 1986, and now and again, I have to take a deep breath, dry my eyes, and put it in place once more.