Mainlining Love, Success And Happiness

I watch the TV show "Intervention." Because in a really fucked up way, I'm envious of junkies.

Like a train wreck, I find myself wanting to turn away, but can't. The show contains that good shocking element that hooks/addicts you into wanting to see more. I watch in horror and in delight as druggies snort massive quantities of white, powdery substances up their membrane shredded noses. I nod my head to the right and stare as an emaciated 120lb father, husband and former star athlete ties his arm off with a leather belt and shoots lethal poison in his veins. Each featured drug addict stumbles around. Their eyes roll into the back of their head. Their mouth gapes open. And they mutter incoherences. They fall to the floor in an overwhelming high. Physically they are grounded. Mentally they are flying. And looking on, I’m envious.

While part of me is saddened and disgusted by them, another part of me is left in awe. Don’t get me wrong. I'm not interested in taking drugs. And I’m not stupid enough to think that the lifestyle of a drug addict or an alcoholic is a glamorous one. In fact, most of the world has pretty much given up on them. They aren’t expected to live up to any expectations. Let me repeat that...

They aren’t expected to live up to any expectations.

Do you know how unbelievably freeing that would be?

We all want the big three in our lives - love, success and happiness. But striving to reach the big three often leads to stress, stress and more stress. We become frustrated when what we want so badly seems so difficult to reach. Days when you feel like one of those experimental lab rats that's exhausted every avenue and is trapped in an eternal maze, unable to gnaw your way through the walls. Red-eyed and white-haired, frazzled out of your mind! If only we could pop a magic pill down our throats or mainline love, success and happiness straight into our veins. If only it were that easy.

It's said that average people love being average because then nobody bothers them. And while I’ve always been someone who wants to live rather than just exist, there is something admirable about the Average Joe who is satisfied with just getting by in life. To not feel the pressures and the stresses from society. To not feel burdened by FEELINGS. To just feel happy and free because the weight of the world isn’t resting squarely upon your shoulders.

I know a guy that holds a 2 Master's Degrees, but is content working a mediocre paying shipping job in which the only hiring requirement is that you can lift 50lbs. Some would say he's wasting his life. That he's settled for less and is capable of achieving so much more. That he's in a rut, has become too comfortable and needs to break the cycle. But I say leave him alone. He's truly one of the happiest people I've ever met because he doesn't suffer from "Barbie Idealism" - that unhealthy mindset of wanting ourselves and our lives to be so perfect that you actually forget how to live.

So while the rest of us struggle to find the love of our life, figure out how to propel our careers to the next level, and settle for nothing short of being deliriously happy...the shipper already has it all figured out. He has a wife, a couple kids and a job that pays the bills. While this typical life isn't for everyone, it's all he needs because it's all that his soul requires to be happy. I wasn't born to be an Average Joe because my soul always has, and probably always will, require more. Although I wish I was content with the slow IV drip. Because while I sometimes feel like I carry the weight of the world across both shoulders, the shipper is hauling a mere 50lbs on just one. You can't help but be envious of that!