Follow Your Bliss

They say the key to happiness in life is all about "following your bliss". For the last week and a half that's been my sole mission. As it turns out, my bliss looks a lot like sleeping in until noon, eating glutonous amounts of my mom's fresh Christmas baking for breakfast followed by a full day of glorious inactivity. I'm guessing that this wasn't exactly what Joseph Campbell had in mind but despite my staggering lack of productivity, my bliss felt pretty darn good. The only caution I would have for anyone planning on following their bliss for an extended period of time is that you try to avoid wearing pants with elasticized wastes for more than a few hours at a time as they are capable of hiding a multitude of sins. I know you're probably wondering how many pairs of pants I have with elasticized wastes and the answer is actually just two. I have a pair of pajama pants and a pair of athletic/work out pants - which I guess is sort of ironic. The problem was that I'd put these on because they're so comfortable and by the time I had to put a real pair of pants on I needed a tub of butter to squeeze into them.

I came to this troubling realization a bit later than I should have. It was about three days after Christmas which was about day six into my intense and focused study in the art of bliss. My brother, sister and I had decided to pry our sorry carcasses off of the couch and go to a movie. You know it's bad when the only motivation to get off of the couch is to go and sit on another one for two hours but what can I say, that's just how I roll. Anyway, I changed out of "my Christmas pants" and into a pair of jeans. Boy was that an uncomfortable wake up call. At first I tried to tell myself they were a touch snug because I had just washed them . Then the harsh reality of the situation set in and and I just prayed they'd give a little so I wouldn't lose consciousness in the middle of the movie. We arrived at the theater only to realize that the start time of the movie was actually fifteen minutes earlier than my brother had thought. Since we were already our standard fifteen minutes late for the "perceived" start time, we were in fact one half of an hour late for the "actual" movie starting time. Although disappointed, I can't say we were completely surprised by this turn of events since my brother's not exactly a details guy. They say "the devil is in the details" and with my brother being the holiest guy I know, the devil is nowhere in sight which means these things are just bound to happen. I've got to be honest, ordinarily something like that would really annoy me but the problem is that my brother's one of those people (perhaps the only one) who I find it almost impossible to stay annoyed at for very long which in and of itself is sort of annoying. He's just so darn well intentioned and that apparently is my kryptonite as far as holding grudges goes. The other reason it didn't annoy me so much was because it meant that I'd be able to get back into my Christmas pants even sooner than expected. In fact, as soon as we got home I was back in my Christmas pants in under two minutes flat (travel to and from my chambers included). It was so quick that even my brother and sister were impressed...or scared, I wasn't really sure which. I also took this opportunity to share with them the song I'd written about my Christmas pants. The song was entitled "Oh Christmas Pants" and actually sounds a lot like "Oh Christmas Tree" but with the word "Pants" substituted for the word "Tree". Trust me, it's catchy. They were both pretty moved by the musical expression of my devotion to my Christmas pants...or scared, again I'm not sure which.

Listen, I'm not going to lie to you - following your bliss is definitely all it's cracked up to be and maybe even more. The only downside I guess is that I'm pretty sure I'm going to be working off my bliss at the gym for the next three months. It's like another wise man once said "Nothing worth having comes without a fight". I'm so relieved to finally know what he was talking about.