Good Time Gertie

As I’ve mentioned before, I often get the babbles. My family and several (many) of my friends have enjoyed/ignored/suffered them. I try to rotate the lucky beneficiaries (although Michelle gets hit quite often). To save Callan last summer, I stood on stumps and directed my ear toward the nearest city. And when that didn’t work, I wrote.

Today’s topic. A happy life doesn’t make good fiction. It’s simple, it’s obvious, but it triggered an inner ‘Oooooh, Wow.’ We want conflict, drama, climax, change. If it's a lovely day, a beautiful boat ride with no sassy pirate or a row boat romp, it’s dull. We read books, watch movies and television shows all with strife, yet most of us say we seek happiness in our lives. Happy:

1. delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing
2. characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy

Happy drugs are advertised on pens, therapy isn’t an embarrassing word, self-help has its own section, there are secrets to it. If this is the desired state of being, why do we voluntarily watch movies that make us cry? Why do we read depressing books about (lying) drug addicts? How do talk shows find audience members? It’s either that we like to be reminded of our superior life, or that seeking pure contentment leaves a range of emotions unattended. We can’t argue that we want to be distracted from our less then happy life, because then we would only watch comedies to achieve the desired state of mind. As my sister pointed out, watching versus experiencing these things allows you to maintain control and return to your safe, fluffy nest.

I’m not advocating self mutilation, volunteering at a funeral home or camping out at car wrecks, just that maybe that if we achieve the goal, exactly as desired without conflict, we would have no stories? And that maybe we should embrace more imperfection and failure because it adds complexity to who we are (and makes for good material)

This sounds much more serious then I intended. Go pick up a fluffy bunny, put on a glowing afro and dance, just fall down a few times.