From the day we’re old enough to understand what the world expects of us, we are sucked into a whirlpool of competition that spins around and around with no way out.

Do whatever it takes to win. No one remembers who finishes second. Climb the ladder of career success. Get to the top so you can buy the big house and the luxury car. Make them jealous of what you own. At the cocktail party, brag about your one kid graduating from Yale and the other who was just named valedictorian of her high school’s senior class.

Failure is not an option. Push past those who stand in your way. This is the American dream after all. Fall in love and get married. Have a beautiful family and make a ton of money so the world can say, “Wow! You have it all!”

But do you really have it all? In fact, you might have nothing unless you get the one thing that money can’t buy, that no one else can give to you. Once you get it, you’ll laugh when you realize how much of your life you wasted chasing the wrong dream. Once acquired, no problem you face, even a serious illness can’t stop your resolve. It’s what you always wanted right up until you take your final breath on this earth.

The benefits are never ending. You’ll feel good about yourself every day. You will radiate with love, not only to those who love you back, but to your alienated brother or sister. You will drop the grudge against the friend who no longer calls you. You will not retaliate to angry insults should they be hurtled your way.

When you spend time in social groups, people will feel your karma, but not be able to define what it exactly is. They will know there’s something different about you that draws them toward your rather inconspicuous presence. When they leave your company, they will wonder, “What does he have? Whatever it is, I want to get it, too.”

American poet, Ocean Vuong gives us a hint at this extraordinary mystique that can guarantee you a happy life. He writes, “Rush hour on the A train. A blind man staggers forth, his cane is tapping lightly down the aisle. He leans against the door, raises a violin to his chin and says “I’m sorry to bother you folks. But please. Just listen.”

He nuzzles into the wood like a lover. Inhales, and at the first slow stroke, the crescendo seeps through our skin like warm water. We who have nothing but destinations, who dream of light, but descend into the mouths of tunnels, searching. Beads of sweat fall from his brow, making dark roses on his instrument. His head swooning to each chord exhaled through the hollowed torso. The woman beside me has put down her book, closed her eyes. The baby has stopped crying. The cop has sat down ... when the train slides into the yard and the song lingers with breaths rising from every seat, I know I am too human to praise what is fading. I want nothing ... but to let that prayer hum through my veins. I want to crawl into the hole in his violin. I want to sleep there until my flesh becomes music.”

The question is clear, but the answer is not. What does the blind man and his violin give to the people on the train? To bring this poem to our reality, we are all on the train of life every day. We too have nothing but destinations. We too dream of the light. And we too “descend into the mouths of tunnels,” the darkness that keeps us swirling and imprisoned inside the whirlpool of competition.

The poet wants what the blind man has and so do we. We want to crawl inside his violin and never come out, even if it means we don’t make more money, we can’t buy that big house or the luxury car because we know they will never deliver to us what the blind man and his violin are offering.

The blind man can see better than us because he looks at life from the inside while we look to the outside. His music is an outpouring from his soul, a sweet melody that brings with it a calmness that we all need and crave in this noisy world that demands we rush here and everywhere, and yet we go nowhere that soothes our minds and bodies.

Medical research claims that as much as 90 percent of illness and disease is stress-related. Stress attacks us all, no matter what economic level we live at. It eats away at our minds and bodies. Some drink alcohol to try and stop it. Others smoke cigarettes, do drugs, or take prescription pills for anxiety, but nothing artificial provides long term relief.

Only peace of mind can provide permanent relief. I’ve spent quality time in the company of a fortunate few who have this aura, this karma and I have taken mental notes about what they have in common. They feel joy and disappointment just like the rest of us, but they understand that trying to sustain joy and eliminate disappointment leads to inevitable unhappiness.

Here’s what else I learned. Once we understand that we must accept the good and the bad that the universe throws at us, only then can we take the first step to having peace of mind. Then, accepting our imperfections as humans allows us the chance to be perfectly at peace with ourselves. When materialism no longer matters and stress and expectation are gone, we achieve sustainable serenity.

See what the blind man can see. If we have his peace of mind, we can play our own music on the train of life and all the dark tunnels will be filled with light that comes from within us.

Rich Strack can be reached at richiesadie11@gmail.com