Weltschmerz vs. Tikkum Olam

Image: artemisdreaming

"A psychotic drowns in the same waters in which a mystic swims." - Joseph Campbell

Weltschmerz is a German word that means "world-weariness."
It denotes the feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the idealistic demands of the mind. It is a depression, an apathy, a meloncholia often associated with the Romantics.

The cure to Weltschmerz is Tikkun olam.

Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world." In Judaism and in Kabbalah, the concept of tikkun olam calls for an ideal society. Similarly, it is what Ghandi meant when he said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

It has all been done before.

"I was here" is graffitied on downtown buildings and bathroom stalls everywhere, but it was also graffitied by ancients on the tombs and temples of Cleopatra's Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome. "I am" is the premise behind Facebook and social media which, are mere modern extensions of the ancient humanistic need for primitive expression of self.

Truthfully, nobody cares what you're having for dinner, if your flight was delayed, or what latest greatest cutesy thing your kid just did. Nobody cares to see pictures of the bathrooms, closets, and garage of your new house. (I hope) your life is more interesting than that.

Personal trivial details of your life are significant to the eye of the beholder. That is, your spouse, mother, and best friend who are sharing these experiences with you. To the rest of us, they become excess. Less is always more. And yet we are all guilty of overshare (Aster writes in her blog!!) and we are all weary because of it.

Instant gratification is unfulfilling. Instant status updates to your mobile device about the latest unremarkable happening to occur to you in your lifetime is a knee jerk reaction that quenches the abyssal appetite of your ego and runs counter to your own happiness.

We are what we think.

Instead of letting randomness occur to you, make great things happen. Be extraordinary. The idea that there is much wrong with the world is ancient. As ancient as its solution: Accept and be the change you want. Think, live, be change.

You make it happen

A single thought. A single word. A single action. Yours.
Affect the things you can change. Beginning with yourself.

Tikkun olam. Repair the world. Now.

Let's make good.