The wisdom of fridge magnets

I have no idea if there’s a name for fridge magnet slogan envy, but if there’s not there should be. Next time I’m in a souvenir shop on holiday or browsing in a bookshop where they’ve got one of those tall display stand thingies I’m going to buy one. Not just any old fridge magnet, needless to say, but one with a slogan that speaks directly to me. It’s this one:

Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most

I’ve seen it a hundred times at least but it never fails to make me smile. And then go away and think a bit. Not that I have actually lost my mind... well, probably not. No, what it does make me ponder on is the contradictory nature of the abstract parts of our lives. Specifically, of how there are some things that the more you want them, the more focus you place on achieving them, the further away they move from your grasp.

There’s a song by The Screaming Blue Messiahs, one of my favourite 1980s bands, that contains the lyric “yes I know it’s hard to find / happiness and peace of mind”. I think that just about sums it up; there is no personal journey more fruitless, more likely to end in a road block, than the one that consciously sets out for destination contentment.

Which doesn’t mean of course that contentment, resolution, peace of mind – call it what you will – is impossible to find. Just that paradoxically you have to let it – them - come and find you. And find you they will, when you’re good and ready. Realising that, as my own personal fridge magnet slogan might say, is the biggest step of all.