My Happy Days In Hell. It’s a book by one of my beloved mentors, Gyorgy Faludy (title pulled from Dante). His title expresses the double edged sword that is life.
On the one hand there is happiness, small moments of contentment snatched from our time here. Friends, laughter, the joy of accomplishment, peace in our hearts and so many more moments of wonder and delights.
On the other hand there is the moloch and the grim reaper shadowing us. There is killing, hatred, death, unnecessary violence, a world of pain and suffering. To be human is to suffer and alas, die.
Never were we freer than under the German occupation. We had lost all our rights, and first of all our right to speak. They insulted us to our faces. ... They deported us en masse. ... And because of all this we were free. - Jean-Paul Satre
All of us can’t avoid this duality - all we can do is try to be more on one side than the other. As Camus rightly suggested, “Neither victims nor executioners”.
I made the video above after sharing with my students a Valentine’s Day song by Nat King Cole - L.O.V.E. My mother’s favorite and What A Wonderful World a close second. Many memories therein …
On another personal note, I’m not too happy these days. The killing in this world pre-occupies me. But then, I get outside, run for a couple hours up an extinct volcano and behold this view. My spirit rises. Just glad to be here.
It is both a wonderful and a horrible world. But atleast I’m still here - fighting on.
What A Horrible World
I see flags a flying
Red blood too
I see them kill
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a horrible world.
I see bombs a falling
And phosphorous white
The blight beastly day
The dark unforgiving night
And I think to myself
What a horrible world.
The tears of the mothers
So ugly is the why?
Are not on the faces
Of my people going by
I see friends breaking bread
Saying, "What can I do?"
They're really saying
I’m glad, it’s you.
I hear babies dying
They’ll never grow
They'll never learn more
Than I've come to know
And I think to myself
What a horrible world
Yes, I think to myself
What a horrible world
Ooh, no …
What A Wonderful Horrible World