Smile!

It’s quite a thing to maintain a content mindset when each day we read stories and hear news which mean that the powers that run the world are bent on humanity’s reduction in number and circumstances – maybe even our gradual or less than gradual destruction.   It sounds like a plot from a bad B movie.  Yet writing and reading on here over approaching fifteen years, there can be little doubt that the world we live in is definitely a B movie being played out exactly as described on a wonderful set.  The earth is a beautiful place.

Maybe that’s why humanity is being subjected to greater and greater suppression and manipulation of our environment, our minds and our physical beings.  What lies behind the assaults we face on a daily basis is a big subject and not one I intend to tackle too deeply in this post, but Satanic forces are clearly at play, and humanity is mostly unaware.

The subject that concerns me this morning is how to cope with all the stuff that’s going on, mentally and emotionally.  Obviously being aware helps, albeit that it’s quite a shock to absorb once you get it about the medical and financial tyranny that is currently assailing us.  The military cannot be that far behind, and the attack is currently very much psychological – getting us used to being restricted in our movements by fear of a bogey virus, to begin with – a virus that may not even exist, and has yet to be proved to exist.

The side of the subject that interests me now is how to cope emotionally.  How can you not simply feel sad at the loss of so much freedom, and the loss of a system of belief that once sustained us, and gave us a sense of purpose?  That system was a lie and we are now finding that out.  We are thrown back on our own resources to build our own morale and objectives.  Being content in life and in the afterlife is the biggest prize we can achieve, and that will always be the objective.  So what about morale?

When we are injured we need to heal.  Emotionally we do that by being with other people that heal us, and avoiding those who injure us, and inwardly by expressing our sadness outwardly – by crying.  Crying is healing.  That is no doubt why as children in the old days we were made to feel that crying was a forbidden or shameful activity.  They wanted to injure us mentally, yet stop us from curing ourselves into the bargain.  Still today at my son’s prep school, which we are leaving this term, they say they want to build ‘character’ in the children, and develop toughness, and ‘courage’.  I would maintain that real courage doesn’t come from killing off the ability to cure yourself, but from the opposite, from gentleness and caring, and being to cry when you need to – to express your emotions, not bottle them up.  Laughter is another great healer, and comedy.

The question I would ask the school would be ‘what situations can you suggest which would require the deployment of courage at the school?’, but of course we as parents are not asked for our opinions.  Parents are maintained as dumb consumers, and the school sees itself as all wise and knowing.  Surely schools are there to develop intellectual ability, but we know now that that is not on the agenda, except up to the permitted levels which are not all that high.  Logic is dangerous to those who propagate lies, so logic cannot be learned, and instead  courage developed so that abuse can be more easily tolerated.

The thing though that cuts through all the cultural programming we are subjected to, for me is definitely music.  As I describe in my autobiography, music helped me get through tough environments in childhood, mostly listening to exquisite classical guitar which would stir my emotions and give me a connection to feeling of happiness, which were otherwise missing within the brutal public school culture of the 1960s.  All through my life, music has played this role and sometimes comedy, and these two are incredibly important in helping to maintain a content spirit.

The song that has grabbed my attention this week came in from a friend in the Philippines, as songs so often do – the Philippines a place I lived in for many years, a place filled with music and which fosters recovery from illness and injury of all kinds.  The song was said to be written by Charlie Chaplin but there are three names on the composer list, and he is only one of them.  It’s well known, called ‘Smile’, and I’ve heard it before but it was performed by Jermaine Jackson, Michael’s elder brother, at a concert in Maastricht, conducted and partly performed by Andre Rieu, who has one of the most expressive faces I’ve ever seen.  The camera work showing the emotion of Jermaine (‘Smile’ was Michael’s favourite song) and the encouragement from Andre is fascinating to watch, cut with many faces filling up with tears in the crowd.

I’m sorry if it doesn’t catch you.  It caught me and I’m enjoying playing and singing and playing the song this week with one of my sons.  In fact it’s been a healing experience.  I share it in case.  If you prefer heavy metal right now, go for that instead.