SpanishAmericanWarDead

My previous essay promoted acceptance as a sure path to inner peace, and as a route to transcend the concept of mental illness. By fully embracing our lives, and ourselves, we are freed from the misery that comes from wishing things to be different.

For instance, depression is uncomfortable, but one can live perfectly well while feeling quite low. Only when we fight against the sadness, and judge ourselves because of it, do we find ourselves hating life. If we can accept the darkest depths of our mood swings, and move through them with grace, we can find satisfaction, fascination, and even inspiration in our experience.

Unfortunately, our culture does not endorse this view. Everywhere we look we see the message that a successful life is a happy one. Electronic screens of all sizes show us smiling, beautiful people loving life. How could one ever believe that a person who often gets flooded by tears and sadness is succeeding in modern society? Can we imagine those lovely models crippled by anxious worries? In real life, of course, the models probably suffer just like the rest of us, but on the screen all is happiness and light.

From the earliest ages we are led to discount the texture and wisdom that come with disappointment, injury, and bereavement. Sadness, we are told, is for losers. Yet some of the greatest artists and innovators have been burdened with depression and other so-called psychiatric symptoms. If these feelings are so awful and destructive, how come they occur so regularly in the greatest minds?

Acceptance does not mean acquiescence to injustice or destruction. It simply means living with full understanding, and without hating any part of our experience. If we can act to prevent future harm, we should do so. But whatever injury has already occurred is now part of the universe. Resisting it only creates tension and dissatisfaction; it does not change established reality. Whatever is here in this moment can be embraced, even if our intention is to prevent anyone else from suffering a similar fate. By accepting our current lives and minds, we can grow and learn and teach. Despite the pain, loss, and sorrow, we can enjoy this brief time we have to live as humans.

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