Life’s lesson has it that as all lizards lie with their stomach on the ground it does not make it easy to know which of them has stomachache. In our everyday life we meet people. They are tall while others are short. They are beautiful while others are not so beautiful. They are white and others are black. They are well endowed in shapes and seizes while others are of moderate shapes and seizes. Some are rich while others are not so rich. Many are healthy while others are sick. No matter how much we try, it is not easy to determine who; among those that we meet, are really happy and who are not. How right was William Shakespeare when he noted in Macbeth Act 1, scene 4 that “there’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”
Many of those that we meet are either driving a big truck or are being driven by it. Driven by something that will make our jaw drop if we were to know the forces behind them. Unless we are invited to navigate in their world and are allowed to share their problems we will never know the terrain of their world and the load that they carry. Few days ago we were shocked with the sudden death of Whitney Houston, the lady of Songs with a magnificent voice that would want us to keep listening to her. She was rich and famous, had enough money to have guaranteed her happiness, but she was either driving a heavy truck or was being driven in the wrong direction. She was found dead in her bathtub, in a hotel room. Last year Michael Jackson, another musical icon, the king of Pop bowed down and out under a powerful drug called propofol. Our dear brother was unable to sleep in spite of his popularity and fame. He was either driving a heavy truck or was being driven by something greater than himself. So we wonder why such a rich man found it so difficult to sleep at night. We have read of many sport stars who have crumbled under the powerful influence of drugs or who adopted a life style that is difficult to understand.
As I watched the funeral of Whitney Houston I realized that all those who are driving a heavy truck or who are being driven by it have one thing in common: they are looking for something. They want to be happy. To have peace of mind! To be loved, not just because of their money or because of how they make us feel when they sing or dance, but just to be loved for who they are. They want to go to bed and sleep as every other person without paparazzi following then around, waiting for them to make a mistake so that they would report it to the whole world. Oh the burden of stardom! Life’s lesson comes handy here: nothing and no one can make us happy. We are either happy or we are not. Money, things, and even human beings cannot make us happy. St. Augustine was on the money when he noted: “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.”
Another life’s lesson, this time from the Book of Psalm #49 is at rem at this point. Please read and learn: Hear this all you peoples, give heed, all who dwell in the world, men both high and low, rich and poor alike! My lips will speak words of wisdom. My heart is full of insight. I will turn my mind to a parable, with the harp I will solve my problem. Why should I fear in evil days the malice of the foes who surround me, men who trust in their wealth, and boast of the vastness of their riches? For no man buy his own ransom, or pay a price to God for his life. The ransom of his soul is beyond him. He cannot buy life without end, nor avoid coming to the grave. He knows that wise men and fools must both perish and must leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes for ever, their dwelling place from age to age, though their names spread wide through the land. In his riches, man lacks wisdom; he is like the beasts that are destroyed.
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