Can we try to be kind, try to be virtuous, try to be happy? Well, yes. Trying is always an option. But what has trying ever accomplished? Turn away from the man whose best counsel is to try harder. He’s an emissary of miserableness.
One of the best depictions of hell (that is, a state we create for ourselves) is found in Samuel Beckett’s two-act play Waiting for Godot, during which two men sit under a leafless tree waiting endless days for a man who never shows up.
The necessities of life include food, clothing, shelter and the means to acquire these things. The list, no matter how long we extend it, does not include negative emotional states. Anger, depression, anxiety and so on—these are not necessary. Gurdjieff’s table-clearing definition of sin: Whatever is not necessary.
Joy is loosely held by the commonplace, the simple and the ordinary. Dogs have this down. Babies, too. In a not unrelated development, micro-dosing is now a primary feature of West Coast culture.
After a while, the man said, “I’m bipolar”—like he was introducing himself.
Men's Work 