Enthusiasm: God or Gottas?

Enthusiasm.  A god within.  That’s what it means.  From the Greek, in-theos, it seems to be appropriately used to describe a person who’s overflowing with energy.  But the Greek gives us another word sometimes confused with enthusiasm: mania meaning madness.  When I was a kid, I’d hear my dad say someone was driving “like a maniac.”  As a Psychology major in college, I learned about manias, triggers that bring on an unreasoned response.  A kleptomaniac steals without thinking; a pyromaniac lights fires for the thrill.   Bipolar disorder describes a person as manic-depressive, levels of energy too high and then too low. 

Sometimes enthusiasm and mania can be confused with each other.  I suspect that it is a matter of the nature of the “god” that is within.  A god of vengeance breeds killers, while a god of love breeds healers.  A god of fear breeds anxiety, while a god of unconditional aceptance breeds calm. There’s a great clip from a Mel Brooks movie in which he plays Moses, come down from the mountain where he saw God.  He says to the people “I brought you the law from God, the Fifteen (he drops the tablet, breaking a third of it to pieces) er…Ten Commandments.”  Had he been even clumsier, dropping it until only the first was left, I think we’d have enough to guide us to a good life.  It tells us not to worship false gods.

Who’s the god at the altar at which we worship?  Every morning when we get up, we start burning incense there, lighting candles with every step we take.  Here are some of mine.

Gotta earn my keep, to deserve what I’ve been given.

Gotta hold my own in this conversation.

Gotta get this done today.

Gotta put enough away to retire without worry.

Gotta do all I can so they know I’m a good person.

Gotta save this person.

Gotta save myself.

Gotta keep my kids safe.

Gotta make more money.

God of my wife’s smile;

God of my children’s love;

God of my grandchildren’s joy;

God of the flowers popping up through the spring grass;

God of things that seem to work out;

God of other people’s faces;

God of generous people;

God of slow speed limits and slow checkout lines;

God of standing up and sitting down….

Enthusiasm or mania? God or gotta?  How about you?  As I read over my list just now, I noticed myself become agitated as I read my gottas, and calm as I read the aspects of my God.  Try it yourself.  What does that tell you about where to light your candles and burn your incense today?

 FreeLemonadeStand by John J. Daniels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.