So many of us are in a hurry to get somewhere or do something. While there's always someplace to travel, we don't all need to go. To the store. To the conference. To the meeting. To the land of enlightenment. Maybe the soul is the chosen landscape. Isn't heaven what you make of it? If no one is happy here, how are they prepared to dwell in eternity? If you can be happy here, you can be happy anywhere, right? Same thing visa versa, if you're not happy here, you won't be happy anywhere.
Poise is composure, gracefulness, elegance, balance, and control. Grace Kelly was considered by many to be the epitome of equanimity. In the above picture with Louis Armstrong, who mindfully plays a tune toward the poised in all situations, Kelly, you can see just how nostalgia came into being.
Monaco is, for me, the most nostalgic of locations. This sovereign city state on the French Riviera is vast becoming the world's green stage. Bordered on three sides by its fashionably dignified and highly cultured neighbor, France; its leader, Prince Albert II, is rising to our "common global challenge that requires urgent and concrete action in response to three major environmental issues: climate change, biodiversity and water."
Prince Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, is the head of the House of Grimaldi. Prince Albert, the worlds' green prince, served as the International Patron of the 'Year of the Dolphin', stating that it gave him the opportunity to renew his firm commitment towards protecting marine biodiversity. Prince Albert, a key player in protecting the environment, could literally turn Monaco into the world's first modern day Utopia, and a haven for humanity's timeless dance - humor.
Humor radiates from the enchantment and smiling delight of a young couple's first encounter. In the words of Baudelaire, "where madder hearts are winging, in their butterfly fashion, than these more jolly, that wander in the shadows over this Ball of whirling Folly." (The Beacons, 1965).
Humor, in its highest attainment, delights us with hints of love; its courtesy waits for others, it is expected but still unknown, and offers only grace for those who willingly allow silence to be filled with happiness.
"I am the land of their fathers,
In me the virtue stays.
I will bring back my children
After certain days."
Kipling
Grace Kelly was preceded by Miss Lanchester, who became one of the most beautiful people in the world of Mrs. Everard Cotes. "A creature of perfect grace and deep, happy eyes; the flash of her smile, if you caught it, promptly turned your head to look again. Her face simply was, you admitted and acclaimed it, among the heaven-sent things in a world."
Night falls and the Prince of Happiness, like Cotes, charms us into suspending disbelief. The silence is only broken by the sound of an overflowing fountain or a child's innocent giggle. In every direction, kindness abounds and open paths graciously appear before us, inviting leisurely wanderings in an almost imaginary dreamworld whose ambiance of literary, artistic and environmental impressionism sweep away the fast-paced modern frenzy with nuances of delectable vibrancy.
If you listen closely, you can hear the elusive vibration of music as if it were playing from the smiles of each inhabitant's soul. A serenade of rapturous enchantment so contagious no one would resist. In turn, its musical cadence could dissolve the boundaries between Paradise and Hell with smiles that soften personal identity to a state where creative virtue co-exists as a life-fostering gift of creative imagination. Here, we can laugh again.
When we laugh, all is alive and well. Puppet theaters entertain children and the society of constraint discovers that the true theater of life is the natural expression of living it. Laugher is a happy expression of beingness. Monaco, in my mind, is a state geared to stage the environmental performance of a lifetime, for the future benefit of all the world's inhabitants.
The theatrical manipulation of triumphs over both religion and commerce has, throughout history, brought us to a state of constantly trying to upstage them. Like Antonio, who stands for wealth through trade, who hardly enjoys, despite his position; we, the audience of the world, are still playing the part of fool. The festive enjoyment of life and laughter have given way to the lowest theatrical level whereby we hold onto ideas and let slip tiny, innocent hands from our grip. (The Merchant of Venice)
We are allowing ourselves to play the part of Antonio. Alas, even Antonio had his shinning moments. Sadness did not stop him from helping others in their pursuit of happiness. Unstinting generosity produces abundance, onstage and off in the theater of our minds, the theater of our hearts, the theater of our souls, and in the environmental theater where all those entities dwell - Earth.
The world fell in love with Monaco because it was the home of the lovely Princess Grace. Its landscape, the shape of a diamond ring; its fountains produce the offspring of gold, and its appreciation for life is its symbolic icon which has been brought to the forefront of the world by its very own Prince Albert II.
Vitality sides with festivity and entertainment. Having applauded a humorous production at the theater, we all return to our homes with renewed bliss...bliss, which leads to altruistic spirit.
From the standpoint of the environmental landscape of the future, it would seem that Monaco would impress even that most splendid of playwrights, William Shakespeare, as being a land small enough in size and big enough in heart to raise, by example, the world toward a greener path.
"All the world's a stage" ... treat it as such.
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