When I was watching Michael Jackson’s memorial there were many very touching moments. It definitely gave me a larger perspective of some of parts of Michael’s life and acknowledgment that he was certainly controversial, had a lot of issues and was an amazing entertainer.
One thing in particular struck me as very poignant. His favorite song, Smile, was sung by his brother Jermaine Jackson. The lyrics are: “Smile, though your heart is aching, Smile, even though it's breaking, When there are clouds in the sky you'll get by...” Wow, I thought, how sad that that is his favorite song. What strikes me about this is that smiling when your heart is aching would be is leaning into a false self smiling-self and not being authentic in a moment of sorrow. If we must smile when everything is going bad in life and play pretend, I could imagine we could feel a sense of hopelessness and futility. At the very least we might feel misunderstood. Am I smiling to please others? Am I responsible for their happiness?
Now I am not saying that we don’t want to cultivate happiness, of course we do, but true happiness comes from being authentic and respectful with where we are in the moment. Otherwise we are feeding a false self that can never bring us contentment, happiness and peace. So I urge all of us to be authentic in the moment with what we are feeling and if we are sad please respect and be with that. We are not required to smile.
May we all live in our authentic self and find peace in the moment…
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