Mensagem Natalina

Véspera de Natal no Mosteiro de São Bento, em Garanhuns com os Guimarães

Natal em Olinda com a família Cavalcanti

HAPPINESS

                        Clóvis Cavalcanti

Thimphu, Bhutan, a different world

(a world you might well get to know).

Gross National Happiness  

– GNH, maybe a wisecrack allusion to GNP.

For our world thinks only about economics,

and GNP is all that life is about.

So much the better that the Fourth King of Bhutan, in 1972,

wisely, at only 17 years of age

(ah! How we miss wise kings),

decided: happiness is worth more than the economy  

– away with the rationale for GNH,

a fix to sate the vice of quantification,

the very basis for an ill-fated GNP.

That’s it – happiness can’t be measured,

nor maximised

(there will always be a maximum

above the maximum you calculate).

Happiness is to be enjoyed, achieved, felt.

It’s in the blue of the sky and the sea out my window,

in the golden sun I see rising from my attic,

in the gentle summer breeze of late-afternoon Olinda

in the waterfall of Alef (on the Farm of the Tao),

in the gaze of my dog Belinha and my cat Maracatu,

in the candor of heartfelt convictions,

in the rosiness, the fragrance, the softness

of granddaughter Lis, two weeks old.

And there in the affection of the beloved sweetheart,

in dear family,

in embracing friends  –

those of long standing

and those more recent.

Happiness is not “gross national” (GNH)

nor “gross domestic happiness” (GDH).

It is only, and completely, happiness.

Merry Christmas.

Lots of happiness!

Best wishes,

Clóvis.

Olinda, Dec. 2013.