Too Jung For the Good Life
by Michael Doyle

The verbal coinage of modern-age complexity
Lays predominately bound to Jung's dexterity
It's something that happens in synchronicity
Of the universe beaming out the need to be happy

But the journey of happiness, despite its fascination
Cannot be approached in any defined sense of destination
The goal is to find the state that seems like progress
That, and to avoid the position in which we deeply regress

There are said to be five pillars on which that might rest
Each of these are substantial in passing the test
In life's ultimate paradox, we can only lower unhappiness
We cannot purposefully create happiness or find true bliss

The negative and the positive are mental states respective
Of those things that makeup life's collected perspectives
Love is happiness experienced as a relationship at full stop
Ignoring this increases isolation and is what we must drop

If we are to find the happiness that keeps us well and whole
And if we are to find the secret to the more successful souls
To find this happiness is to find beauty in its cultivation
And that nature's beauty must have our greater appreciation

Aesthetic experience wholly depends on setting an artistic mood
It's the melancholy of broken artists that constantly intrudes
Reasonable living standards require living with a good purpose
To do so, we do best when what we do can provide service

Fostering resilience is the brilliance of being a human being
We live intentionally to form experiences that have meaning
If we are to live our lives with a sense of needed resplendence
We must walk the righteous paths that lead to transcendence

The closest we mortals have to approaching happiness is love
Some of us find this in following the ways taught from above
In the end, it seems to me that what we must finally contend
is that to serve God and others is, indeed, our living end

(c) April 11, 2024   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved