It's a Mad World

Recently I enjoyed re-watching one of my favourite films: Groundhog Day (starring Bill Murray). The film is such a joy because it provides a message of optimism and makes us realise that the choice is ours for a life of hope and fulfilled living.

The world we live in is increasingly meaningless, and there are many reasons for this, with the major reason – in my opinion – being humanity’s inclination to forget and ignore its spiritual origins. We have arrogantly come to think that everything we have in life is self-determined; that we are masters of our own universe and fate. The only thing we need for a fulfilled life is money, and the more we have the better we can live. So our lives become driven by work, which gives us money, which enables us to buy whatever we want.

Not surprising then that we fulfil the words from the book of Job: “Is not man’s life on earth no more than pressed service, his time no better than hired drudgery? Like the slave, sighing for the shade, or the workman with no thought but his wages…”. (Job 7: 1-2)
 
That’s what prompted me to choose the photograph for this article. It’s the “mad hatter’s tea party” at Disneyland. There is a ride of the same name at Disneyland – with rotating cups and saucers. That ride emulates our modern life on this earth: spinning round and round, ever faster, under our mad drive to get an increasingly euphoric “buzz”. In the process of creating our “fun”, we do not see the life around us, whizzing by in a blur. After the ride, we remember very briefly the dizzying flash of dazed confusion before moving to the next ride for another fleeting “buzz-fix”. When it’s all over we don’t recall the detail – we cannot – because in the revolving flash of our episode we don’t have full consciousness of everything around us.

Is this how we want to live our life – in a sub-conscious rush for temporary material pleasures with scant thought for what it really means to be alive? Get more money; spend more money; have “fun”; do it again. Do we really want to be superficial beings in our aging and ailing material “shell” bodies, or do we want to be soul conscious spiritual beings eagerly transcending this madness into a real life of perpetual true happiness, beauty, light and wonder.
 
In the process of living, we can be like the character Phil Connors in the film Groundhog Day: either selfishly lamenting and hating the repetitive emptiness of existence in this world, or choosing to make a difference by being authentic, sincere, helpful, caring, kind, and loving towards others for their benefit rather than ours.


Image: Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Disneyland, Paris, France. Copyright - Michael Beaton

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