If you want to be happy, be.  ~Leo Tolstoy

My first year at camp I had a friend who asked me what I wanted out of life.

I didn’t think very long about it before answering, “happy…I want to be happy”.

His response was that “truth” was his answer…and made it seem like it was the more correct and nobler response.

I think that my response was probably the more honest of the two.

I was thinking about this exchange when I was driving home from work the other day.

Truth is a tremendous goal to shoot for.  I could sleep at night knowing that I’d found truth.

I do suspect though that I might not want to know some of the things I’d found.

I know from my own past that if happiness is far away, I can’t go looking for anything…much less invest the energy to find truth.  It’s just not going to happen.

I miss all the markers….road signs pass by in a blur, unread and misunderstood.  I can’t function very well when I’m profoundly unhappy.

That’s why I chose the title of this blog this morning. Sometimes we stumble over something for years.  Every morning, in the partial darkness of dawn, we trip over the wastebasket that has always been in that same location.  Why should it be any different?  It’s our habit…it’s what we’re used to…it’s what we curse to start the day out.

And then one day, we get some kind of wild hair inspiration and move the wastebasket.  Darn convention…darn tradition…I’m tired of tripping over this thing!

And we change.

Truth is a noble and necessary pursuit.

Happiness moves the wastebasket.