Strange Love Letters
Yesterday was a special day for me. Six years ago, I made the decision to follow my heart, no matter where it took me, no matter how little sense it made to my brain. And it's been an amazing six years!
I celebrate July 10th every year, as a reminder to keep following my heart. It's not always easy, mostly because George is kind of a stick in the mud.
I'm going to go off on a tangent for a minute, but stay with me... It has a point!
There was a comedian, Bill Hicks, and he was absolutely brilliant. A lot of people may not know who he was because, like many of the greats, he was taken from us far too soon. He would often close his shows with the following:
The World is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real, because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round, and it has thrills and chills and is very brightly colored, and it's very loud. And it's fun, for a while.
Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they've begun to question, 'Is this real, or is this just a ride?', and other people have remembered, and they've come back to us and they say 'Hey, don't worry. Don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.' and we KILL THOSE PEOPLE.
"Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride! SHUT HIM UP! Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account, and my family. This just has to be real."
It's just a ride.
But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that. You ever noticed that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter, because ... It's just a ride.
And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear wants you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead see all of us as one.
Here's what we can do to change the world right now, to a better ride:
Take all that money we spent on weapons and defense each year and instead spend it feeding, clothing, and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we can explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever ... in peace.— Bill Hicks (1961 - 1994)
This exploded my brain the first time I heard it. (Sorry, I can’t use the term “mind blowing” anymore because its overuse by sites like Buzzfeed have caused the term’s meaning to change. Anyway.) It’s influenced the way I think about things and the way I make decisions. There is something very calming about the simplicity of boiling it all down to a choice between fear and love.
However, I would like to propose an addendum to this philosophy. What if the choice between fear and love is just another one of the things that our minds believe is real? What if it’s a false dichotomy? Because fear isn’t really real. It’s just an imaginary friend who means well. And when you get down to it, it’s an imaginary friend who loves you and wants you to be safe. So. . . What if you didn’t choose between love and fear, but instead simply chose to love your fear?
Lots of love,
Jillian