Karl Marx in Mickey Mouse Ears

Disney is a happy place. Every member of staff impeccably smiles, waves and wishes an awesome day. We surf this wave of happiness until our faces can smile no more.

Every so often the veil falls; and when it does it is a precious moment.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of Magic Kingdom this week, while walking in the flow of a massive Halloween fuelled crowd we past a member of staff whose smile had fallen, her eyes showed such sadness it stopped me in my tracks.

Against this backdrop of uber happiness and celebration the sheer humanity of real feelings cut through the superficial to bring spiritual feet back to ground.

Karl Marx’ claim that we create imaginary flowers to mask the chains of our oppression rings increasingly true the older I get. As I’m on holiday my personal chains are currently covered in the smiling faces of Walt’s creations.

Happiness is a good thing. A thoroughly good thing in my opinion. Indeed Buddhism determines happiness to be the fundamental meaning of life. Happiness can also be extremely elusive.

I once played golf with three of the wealthiest people I have ever met. They all arrived by helicopter and their golf clubs were the latest and the best. They were intelligent and exceptionally driven, as you’d expect from such successful and self made people. For the whole round of 18 holes they spoke of how hard it was to find happiness.

From the outside they had everything. The success, the charm, enough money to do whatever they wanted; but they too found happiness elusive. The things they had were as superficial as Its a Small World, fun distractions but did nothing to help them find happiness. If anything they were a distraction.

In reality, to be happy requires more than just everyone around you to pretend to be happy. Not even immersion in the world of the Magic Kingdom is sufficient to deliver deep down happiness. Marx was right, we need to be aware of the chains that bind us and find ways to break these.

Many of these chains are self formed; the inner self-critic in all of us is sufficient to destroy our happiness in a heartbeat. The unpleasant or unfair judgement of us by others can do much to damage those without a strong sense of self-knowledge. 

Many institutions, including the church, have done much to keep people engaged by institutionalising criticism. Setting a bar too high for anyone to reach and creating an addiction to the process of self-loathing and redemption they proclaim. This is a long way from the promise of joy and celebration we read of in the Bible that should form the basis of the Christian tradition.

It is worth a listen to Rob Bell’s latest podcast on this subject (robbell.podbean.com/e/jesus-h-christ-part-7-you-are-already-at-the-party/). I found this to be a brilliant description of the heart of true happiness. The utter freedom and celebration promised through the Christian tradition (I’d argue that this translates to many other religious traditions also). 

In reality happiness is ours to claim now. We tend to defer it to the future; I’ll be happy when I retire, when I change jobs, when I have a family. We also put our happiness into the hands of others; I’ll be happy when I have more friends, when people look up to me, when I lose weight, when I’m a better person.

All of this is to choose to be unhappy today. Our happiness is ours to own now.

Cutting through the superficial we can find love, truth and happiness in every encounter; we just need to adjust our perspectives to find it. We can also see the chains that oppress us and take steps to mindfully address these.

So I’ll celebrate the childlike joy of Disney and sing ‘Let it Go’ every morning; much to the annoyance of my wife and kids. I’ll also celebrate the humanity of the woman whose sadness reminded me of my own challenges and the chains I break daily.