Cheerfulness is when the brow of the hill seems close. When you are taking the last few steps forward, it is the unique experience of the day before a special event, the last few moments. It is when you have passed through so much and there’s only a little to go, and that little is easy, because you’d only lose if you turned back. Cheerfulness is the brilliance of being free, even of having to choose, because everything you’ve done up to this point has already dictated the future. So how can we be cheerful, when we’ve got so far to go?

It is a matter of clarity and conviction. First you have to be able to see beyond the present, to have such vision that you can sense a good future, not just for you, but for everything. You have to know in your bones that the whole movement of life is towards what is good and that all hills have valleys, all seasons have summer. Then you have to live that or else cheerfulness is just bravado in the face of despair.

Cheerfulness in its true form is earned. You have to work for it, clear away enough of the rubbish inside that you can see. For this you have to know how to cordon off weakness, to refuse it entry into the rest of your life. People talk about being ‘whole’, but until the end, you have to become an expert at being in pieces, so that your eyes are always dancing even if your feet are dragging.

Cheerfulness is never being ashamed, any more than you would be by getting paint on your hands as you fill in the last few brushstrokes. Cheerfulness makes everyone love you, because they can sense your victory ahead, but it is not a cold victory, alone, because the foothold for others to follow is the mud on your boots.