A note from Dr. Hendrix
This one came out as a poem — me wandering the cloudy, bumpy road we all call the search for happiness, and wondering whether I had been chasing it down the wrong path entirely. I wrote it because after a long life I have started to think happiness is not a destination you reach so much as a thing you keep rethinking.
Here I am thinking about being on the happiness road
It’s also cloudy and bumpy, at least the one I rode
I thought maybe I took the wrong road
So I went searching for another road
.
I started thinking
I thought
and I thought
and I thought
I’m still thinking
One day I thought
Maybe happiness is something I should be rethinking
.
Sometimes I’m happy
Some other times I’m not unhappy
Occasionally I’ve been unhappy
Mostly I’m just doing
what I do
.
Where does the word happy show up?
When does it show up?
It’s pretty new
1632
Maybe a bit later, that makes it really new
.
John Locke
John Locke
In your mind was unlocked
The phrase
In pursuit of happiness
It is now our most famous phrase
.
In the Christian world
Happiness comes
When you are dead and in heaven
And then only if you qualify for heaven
.
In pursuit of happiness
Suits me
Maybe the idea of a happiness road
Is what I mean
.
I’ve worked hard
It’s caused feelings of happiness
Not all the time
There are pain filled times
.
The death of my people
Along that way is a trail of tears
I know what sad is
Depression too
.
What has occupied my journey most of the time?
Not all the time
But happiness is there much of the time