NOW THAT'S A RIVALRY!

If you were curious as to what the Dalai Lama’s secret to happiness was in the book “The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World,” but you don’t want to read the 330 pages to find out what it is, I’ll be a good friend and share the secret with you, just as long as you either, one, don’t tell anyone, or two and the more likely scenario, when you do tell someone else, just make sure to give them the “you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone” line and we should be fine. And the secret is....(drum roll), live your life with compassion. For those of you thinking the answer would have been more along the lines of what company will be the next Google, I apologize, but as a reminder, we’re talking about happiness here, not early retirement and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather work until I’m 80 and be happy then retired at 40 and miserable.

Speaking about retirement, what’s the rush anyways? Is work really that bad? Or maybe, it’s not that work is that bad, but retirement is just really that good, even though I can’t say I’ve met a lot of retirees doing somersaults through the rest of their life. Some might say it’s the freedom part of retirement that makes it so desirable, but aren’t I just as free now to do what I want as I would be when I’m retired? There was a time, where I too, was bit with the early retirement bug, but where I’m at in life now, I’m beginning to question the value of an ambition like that as I think people should care less about early retirement from work and CARE MORE about early retirement from unhappiness. Maybe living by this philosophy will keep me working until I go to the grave, but as long as I’m happy, I’m ok with that.

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned the fact that the World Cup of Cricket has been going on over here for about the last month, but it’s something I should probably mention since it’s a pretty big deal, especially since India has made what I’d like to call the “Final Four” of cricket, as they join Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand as the remaining combatants. Just like “March Madness” this year, the World Cup of Cricket has seen its fair share of upsets as the defending champs in Australia lost out in the quarterfinals and South Africa lost out as well. Tomorrow, India goes up against Pakistan in a loser out semi-final game, and the animosity these two teams have against each other makes the animosity Gonzaga and the Huskies of Washington have for one another in basketball seem like more of a romance, and not the celebrity kind that always seems to fizzle out, but more like the kind captured in the movie “The Notebook.” The rivalry between Pakistan and India isn't like your typical sports rivalry back home either, where all it takes for me in college basketball to dislike the other team is a coach that greases his hair back and a few players that are "one and dones" who wear headbands. Who could that team be? With Pakistan and India though, the rivalry is much more legit as these two countries have had a history of conflict with each other dating back since 1947. Just to put things into perspective, people have died over the tension between India and Pakistan in past years. Of course, I'll be rooting for India in tomorrow's match, but regardless of what team wins, I'm just glad I can say Gonzaga vs. the Huskies isn't like the rivalry of India vs. Pakistan in cricket, because if it was, I probably would have already died from an aneurysm by now since just seeing the color of Husky purple has been enough to almost do that to me in the past.

Go India!