“A story is told about a king who was once seriously ill. All the physicians despaired of curing him. One healer offered a remedy: If the king would put on the shirt of a person who is absolutely happy, then the king would be healed.
And they went from person to person and it was always the same story. Some people were outwardly happy, and some were inwardly happy. But no one was absolutely happy. Beneath the surface, everyone was burdened by various worries, concerns and anxieties.

After this long and unsuccessful journey, they decided it was time to go back home; they realized that they could not find anyone who knew what absolute happiness is. On their way home, shortly before they approached the palace, they heard a joyous melody. A person was singing freely, a drunken man, reeling back and forth with a huge smile on his face. “Are you happy,” they asked him. “I am the happiest person in the world,” he answered. “Absolutely happy?” “Yes. I have not a care on my mind.”

And they saw that it was true. “Lend us your shirt for a short while. We promise that you will be amply rewarded.”

The man replied, “I would be happy to help the king, and I do not need his rewards. But there is one problem. I do not own a shirt.”A human has a brain and a soul, and unless he taps their potential he will never be satisfied. The drunk feels happy because he has no shirt, meaning he has nothing to himself. But this is not real happiness. In Hebrew, we call this holelus (frivolity), not simchah (joy). It is an animal form of satisfaction, where the person does not live up to his potential. Is it possible to have purpose and direction, and to let loose and feel free? Yes.

The path of life requires as much attention as does any road. Joy is letting go, a different drug-free letting go. One does not lose control – one transfers control. Joy is important, not only as the antithesis of depression, but as an expression of feeling our inner dimension, that we are more than skin and bones. We are god in I pieces.

More than worry, stress, doubt. There is faith, there is freedom, there is joy. We work with the rhythm of the magic that dances between us.”

— an anonymous informant