Friday, April 30, 2010

Riding the Wave of Excitement

Excitement is a natural and healthy part of what it means to be human, but there are definitely different levels, or forms of expression, of excitement.

When we are very young, we get the most excited about good things happening in our lives, hence the expression, "she was beside herself with excitement." When are in our twenties, thirties, or even forties, we may still let out yelps or even screams of delight, but when we're in our fifties or older,
the tendency to get excited is still there, but often it's a quieter, more mature expression. Maybe our eyes light up, and we grin with anticipation.

That's how it is with me now. Recently I got news that an insurance settlement that I first applied for four years ago, and that six months ago I was sure I was not going to get at all, may be arriving as early as next week. That will give me much more freedom financially, and I am already planning a 10 day trip to Manila, in the Philippines. I will stay with a friend of thirty years, and I will enjoy, I am sure, the many delights of being a single man, a Westerner, in an exotic Asian country.

So, when I think about my trip, I get a little excited. Yes! But I don't think too much about it, because that would be to dwell in the future, to live always thinking about anticipated events, and of course I don't do that. I live fully in the present, in this timeless, flowing moment of now... I honor the past, keep an eye on the future (including, occasionally, indulging a brief fantasy about my stay in Manila!), but live right here, in this very moment that you are reading this...

Now, is it my ego that gets excited, or is it something deeper? It is both, I feel. It is part of our human personality, which includes the ego, to get excited at the thought of anticipated good things. But the freer we are, the more awake or enlightened, the less identified with any of the thoughts or stories inside our heads, especially ego thoughts. We are simply present here, now, identified (if even we can speak of "being identified") with all that is.

This is how we ride the wave of excitement.

1 comment:

  1. I'm uncomfortable with this post of yours. I have a Puritanical background, I admit, and maybe more than my share of hang-ups. My discomfort might be all me, not you. Nevertheless, I find I want to comment on the exoticism element.

    Of course it is quite clear what you mean by "the many delights of being a single man, a Westerner, in an exotic Asian country." But:

    I'm quite sure you could find appealing working girls of Asian descent to show you a good time in San Francisco, which is less expensive to travel to. And what about the company of a French-speaking Montreal mademoiselle, also reachable without a transoceanic plane trip?

    Both these options are a kind of tourism - less exotic, but also less expensive, than the trip to the Philippines that you are planning with your new financial freedom. And if you watch commercial tv or read magazines, you are probably exposed to ads for Las Vegas. There are urban downtowns even closer to you than that, and in the countryside one can also find adult entertainment - as the ZZ Top song says "about that shack outside La Grange", "They got a lot of nice girls there."

    So why is a trip to Manila so special?

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