My friend Karen and I have been choosing
our “word” on New Years Day for about 20 years now.
We used to pass Southern fluff novels back and forth and
comment on their proper use of Southern manners, correct preparation of grits
and the inevitable “gumption” of the main character. In one of these, we found the then-new
concept of choosing a “word” for each new year.
We’ve been choosing our words every year since then, and
often found that the words we chose had mysterious and unpredictable
manifestations in the unfolding year. I blogged about this phenomenon last year at this time.
This year, Karen and I have chosen the same word. It’s a special word. Completely unique. To my knowledge, no one
else has ever taken this as their New Year’s word. It's worthy of two takers in the same year. The word is...
Now some pitiable people have never seen the movie,
“Harvey.” And some people just vaguely
remember something about a white rabbit.
But some of us absorbed it into our hearts and souls, in a way that
made Elwood P. Dowd a personal friend, a mentor and a most enjoyable
companion.
I first saw the movie at an early age when I was simply
tickled by the notion of a 6-foot (3-1/2 inch) white rabbit who was always up for an
adventure and had fun wherever he went.
Who knew my name without even being introduced.
I saw "Harvey" many times after that and at some point became
entranced with the whole philosophy of life that is contained in that movie, like the white crème in the middle of a Hostess cupcake. Here it is in a nutshell:
"Years ago my mother used to say
to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart, or oh so
pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant."
Now I
have nothing against smart. In fact, I
love smart! But sometimes “smart” is
just enough information to make a person unhappy. What possible good is any information unless
you can use it to add happiness to this world?
The one
thing every human being desires is happiness. Why is it in such short supply?
How
many truly happy people do you know?
Chances are, they're not the people who have the most money or the best
bodies or the top jobs. If happiness
depended on external circumstances, no one would be reliably happy, because
jobs and stock markets and health are always changing.
Happiness
has to be some internal decision, some viewpoint that is stronger and more
appealing than “reality.”
That’s
where Elwood comes in. He says,
by
which he means,
"I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor,
and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it."
“I always have a wonderful time,
wherever I am, whoever I'm
with.”
For
that to be true, a person has to be truly open-hearted, receptive and appreciative
of whatever they find in other people.
That means I can’t have an agenda; I can’t be looking for something in
particular from another person. I have to take every
person as a gift. They are the joy given
to me for that moment of that day.
That’s Elwood in a nutshell.
I don’t
think Elwood is just agreeably amiable, just pleasantly simple-minded. He has found the secret of love and loving.
“Elwood”
is going to be a hard word to live up to.
Maybe even harder than the year Shantel rashly chose “impeccable” for her word!
I will
fail at Elwood. Probably before
noon. But I’ll keep trying because
Elwood is all the important things in life: joy, peace, contentment, openness,
appreciation and the certainty that life is good.
Happy
New Year, friends!
Mailman: Beautiful day...
Elwood P. Dowd: Oh, every day is a beautiful day.
