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Erich the K - 2006-09-11 11:29:44
I'd immediately want to know WHY I would feel happy, so that I could obsess about it not happening and in the process sabotage it.
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Paula - 2006-09-11 11:40:25
Ha!
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Greg - 2006-09-11 11:55:09
I had to think on this one--and I asked the boys this morning too--they both said that they would probably be happy now too, which makes sense--presuming that is that we're talking about being happy, and not relieved that something will have transpired by this time tomorrow. I had to ponder the difference between happiness and pleasure, vs. removal of discomfort and or relief. And living by the old saw, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him what you intend to do tomorrow," I figure, why wait until then.
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iwombat - 2006-09-11 12:58:36
I'm pretty happy right now, I'm pretty happy a lot of the time these days, knowing I'll be happy tomorrow might make me a little calmer. But who knows what tomorrow may bring?
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iwombat - 2006-09-11 13:02:15
But very happy... I once wrote a little proto tale, of walking towards paradise, and in a state of joyful, relaxed curiosity, picking up diamonds on the side of the path, and putting them back down after wondering, briefly at their beauty.
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Bob - 2006-09-11 13:56:31
Depends on the cause of the happiness. If the happiness were going to be triggered by endorphins (instead of vice-versa), then I'd feel like a junkie waiting for a fix. (That is, if I must wait to do whatever activity is going to trigger endorphins.)
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Greg - 2006-09-11 14:00:40
Bob--I think I copped a couple dime bags of your endorphins by mistake from some dude named Pachanga on the corner of Bergen and Classon. Boy George I got NUKED!
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Bob - 2006-09-11 14:12:19
Actually, I had pool/bowl skateboarding in mind (but didn't want to come right out and admit it might be making me a bider sometimes). But whatever nukes your boat.
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Bob - 2006-09-11 14:42:45
Oh, and speaking of nukes, let's not forget that anyone who worries that a few random missiles cruising over Pakistan without warning could trigger some silly nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan lacks "balls", "balls", "balls", "cajones". (And is probably the same person who tipped off Sadaam, when we thought we'd 'sploded HIM.)
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Bob - 2006-09-11 14:52:47
Sorry, didn't realize Greg had already covered that, 'til I glanced back at his street names.
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Greg - 2006-09-11 14:55:04
Pedantic Spanish Attack:
Cajones = Boxes
Cojones = Family Jewels
And I'd be much happier at this time tomorrow if I had un presidente con cerebro y corazon, instead of one "con cojones.
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Bob - 2006-09-11 15:10:55
Pedantic Self-Attack: Bergen does not = Berger, so maybe those street names were meaningless. But I think even a president with real balls/guts instead of fake ones would be better than what we've got. (After all, it wasn't the writer's BALLS who came up with last night's script.)
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Jens Carstensen - 2006-09-11 15:16:49
Like Thursday!
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balls - 2006-09-11 15:35:53
Yeah... we may be DUMB, (for instance, we have no idea what feeling "Like Thursday" means - wait, now we get it), but we ain't DISINGENUOUS. Quite frankly, we feel that, like Sandy Berger and bongos and Irishmen, we've been given a bad name. And are kind of appalled that that "Path to 9/ll" movie was even being considered as a teaching tool.
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Greg - 2006-09-11 15:52:44
See, this makes me happy. I've always heard the phrase "more balls than brains" but now we have balls WITH brains. All is right with the world so I don't have to wait until tomorrow to be happy!
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Mr Glad he did not get a PhD - 2006-09-11 16:04:28
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
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Greg - 2006-09-11 18:28:24
Who needs a PhD when you can get pH balance in a bottle? Really!
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2fs - 2006-09-12 00:24:38
I think you're all missing a key point of Paula's question (remember that - before we were babbling about balls and Bush? Which reminds me - oh never mind): she said, "if you *believed* you were going to be happy."
I'd have to say that if I believed I was going to be happy (not "knew," or anything mystical), I'd be happy now. Because how can you believe you *will* be happy if you're not happy now? Despair is usually pretty a gloomy place - it's hard to see anything outside it. I don't think if I were in a bad mood I'd believe (truly) that I'd be happy tomorrow. I might, intellectually, allow it as a possibility...but I wouldn't really *believe* it. But if I'm happy right at that moment? Of course I'd believe I'll be happy, in the absence of any reason for expecting that to change. (Although admittedly there are times when I do get paranoid and suspect that if things are going too well, they must be about to fuck up royally, because no one gets that much good luck. But only some times.)
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Paula - 2006-09-12 07:43:35
Well, there's no right or wrong answer, but 2fs I think you understand what I was getting at. I've just been thinking a lot lately about what happiness really is, and broadening the definition. If a person can be happy just knowing that something good is around the corner, then happiness is more about beliefs than it is about actual circumstances.
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chris - 2006-09-12 09:08:16
Oddly what gives me the most comfort (and thus makes me happy) is understanding that humans are not necessarily programed to be happy. So much of our consumer culture is geared to the notion that we can and must be happy, and if your not your a f*cking loser. Knowing that happiness is more genetic, more chemical, and more subtle relieves the pressure and opens up a different route to happiness. So, yes, understanding happiness better does make one happier. Or at least it has me.
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Paula - 2006-09-12 09:13:53
Yes...also to me there's a difference between "pleasure" which is relative and material, and "happiness" which is more an attitude and not really graspable (sp?).
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Chris - 2006-09-12 09:34:07
Once people have the basics (food, shelter, health) happiness is pretty set and hard to change. As one neuroscientist has said "its about as easy to change your happiness and the size of the jeans you wear". Studies have shown people are happiest when they are sharing with a group what they are best at. So paula, you will be happy at your next show. A knowing you will be happy then, should make you happy now.
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Paula - 2006-09-12 09:36:37
Aw, that's sweet. I like any philosophy that doubles as a marketing tie-in for my shows.
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Greg - 2006-09-12 10:57:39
Yah, I'd have to say that provided there is no chemical imbalance, or circumstantial obstacle, pleasure and happiness are definitely about choice and attitude. That's what both my sons agreed upon Monday morning... and I may see my adult life as somewhat more complex, I still have to follow that lead, if for no other reason than maturity and experience have balanced out the added complexity. And I can't remember where I read it, but a lesson I took to heart was to consider the expression "Count your blessings" in a literal sense--as in make a daily effort to actually list things you feel good about, right down to things that may have happened or that you might have seen that day.
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Babblin' Bob - 2006-09-12 11:08:02
Uh, Jeff, the believe/"know" thing is exactly what I considered important, before coming up with an example which superceded it. You don't know (and of course can't) that you're going to have a good "session" with your group (actually talking skateboarding instead of performing music here), yet you BELIEVE it, but, that still can make it "Like Thursday" the day before. And, the "Path to 9/ll" was the subject of Paula's blog just the other day, so it wasn't that naughty to bring THAT up, I would contend.
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Bob - 2006-09-12 11:16:27
That is, the "Path to 9/11" movie was the subject just the other day, and it did not seem uncalled for to tangentially stray back to it, the day after we had had a chance to actually see the "controversial" part.
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Tom G. - 2006-09-12 11:34:21
"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness."
-- Robertson Davies
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loose ends - 2006-09-12 11:58:35
"Pleasure" triggers endorphins, which tend to make one happy... though they are by no means the only thing that does. (And of course pleasure [and happiness, for that matter] ain't the only thing[s] that triggers endorphins.)
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Paula - 2006-09-12 12:01:10
You can hide your identity, Bob, but your punctuation gives you away.
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"pleasures" "aren't" "things" "trigger"? - 2006-09-12 12:12:11
.
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:;,. - 2006-09-12 12:22:39
How then could I hope to hide my identity? I was just trying to stick to the subject, which wasn't me.
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Paula - 2006-09-12 12:24:25
I was just funnin' w/ya.
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2fs - 2006-09-12 23:28:31
Bob - no offense intended - I was just making my own transition back to Paula's question. Also: it seemed as if some people were taking the question as if it came with a hypothetical "if you could know..." - much as you might ask someone, "if you could know the exact day you're going to die, would you want to know?" You answer that question (or not) knowing that, of course, you cannot actually know the answer. Unless you're about to kill yourself. Which is a bad idea. I'm just saying. (My answer: no.)
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Bob - 2006-09-13 11:04:31
I was funnin' back (I can hide my identity but I can't hide my identity?), but it's hard to watch one's (potential) tone in writing when one "knows"/hears what it "really" is. And I didn't mean to sound offended 2fs... perhaps "Uh, coincidentally," would have sounded less snippy than "Uh, Jeff,". But initially considering "believed" as more positive than a hypothetical hypothetical "if you could know" really was exactly what I did, but I concluded that it wasn't necessarily more positive, because of my example, but I failed to put it in a nutshell like Jens, whose "Like Thursday!" really covered it... and allows for the fact that different people are going to feel different with, um, "Friday on" their mind.
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Greg - 2006-09-13 13:04:19
This is like a love-in!
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2fs - 2006-09-14 00:53:11
...except without all the psychedelic music, colored lights, bad acid, and women who look like Janis Joplin. (Dammit where's my hippie wig?)
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Greg - 2006-09-14 06:17:37
Your hippie wig is right over there. The slightly taller Janis Joplin is holding it under her arm... oh wait... nevermind.
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Officious Bob - 2006-09-17 12:56:24
Hope y'all aren't suggesting "Friday On My Mind" has anything to do with hippies, just cuz it's from the sixties. Or, that its upbeat tone does. Or, that negative jonesing in the same situation would. Or, that my rational denial of negativity does.
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trippy dude - 2006-09-17 16:00:11
Or, if it was too hippie-like to be "supportive" of nailing it with brevity, I suppose I could have offered condemnation instead, by pointing out that Jens said more, with less, than any of us on this subject, if only by default. Better?
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Lucid Bob - 2006-09-17 16:07:07
Though I don't know what's with my use of "y'all";; 2fs weren't even hardly playing along there.
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