I don’t know what it’s like to be happy.
I mean really happy. I mean happy without conditions. Without money or more square footage or a savings. I’m talking about true happiness that gives you the permission to dance like a stupid white person at concerts, happiness that isn’t affected by weather or emotion or even by death. Sure, I’m happy when I see my baby smile or my wife in a low cut shirt, but now we're back to conditions, right? I’m beginning to think that I just don’t get the “happy thing.” I’m talking about the kind of happy that those rich kids in the East village or Williamsburg seem to have. Or the happiness that makes people live with an almost painted smile. Or the apparent happiness that old people have. Or the happiness that rural America seems to feel about their small town football team.
Rural America LOVES the football team. They smile and treat them in an almost celebrity status. They seem truly happy to have them. The players and the coaches! They write about them in the paper. They cheer fro them at games. They interview the team. They make calendars with their pictures at Kinko’s and sell them for new uniforms, which seemingly promotes even MORE happiness for future generations. Everyone in the town seems to go to bed with a sense of accomplishment and pride. They wake up knowing that the fields are still there (and in need of plowing), the kids are safe at school, and the football team is playing the Eagles from Des Moines tonight. I guess I could possibly understand this happiness, but only if the game was on a crisp autumn night (since the summer makes me unhappy), I was uber-popular, I was dating the cheerleading captain, I had money and fast car. But you see, there it is again, I can’t be freakin’ happy without conditions. Things attached.
Jesus said true happiness was possible. The Dali Lama says it’s possible. Gandhi said it is possible. Mother Teresa said it is possible. All these people say that happiness is possible yet I can’t seem to get a grip on it. I’m beginning to think that true happiness might only be possible in cases of extreme hardship and poverty. And can only be found when you're old, wise, holy and living in a third world country (and in small town with a football team, of course).
I call myself a Christian. As a Christ-tian I think the whole point is to follow the teachings of Christ in hopes that it makes you happy which in turn changes the world for the better, right? If this is true, then why are we not happy? More to the point, why am I not happy, damn it!
-Steve
Rural America LOVES the football team. They smile and treat them in an almost celebrity status. They seem truly happy to have them. The players and the coaches! They write about them in the paper. They cheer fro them at games. They interview the team. They make calendars with their pictures at Kinko’s and sell them for new uniforms, which seemingly promotes even MORE happiness for future generations. Everyone in the town seems to go to bed with a sense of accomplishment and pride. They wake up knowing that the fields are still there (and in need of plowing), the kids are safe at school, and the football team is playing the Eagles from Des Moines tonight. I guess I could possibly understand this happiness, but only if the game was on a crisp autumn night (since the summer makes me unhappy), I was uber-popular, I was dating the cheerleading captain, I had money and fast car. But you see, there it is again, I can’t be freakin’ happy without conditions. Things attached.
Jesus said true happiness was possible. The Dali Lama says it’s possible. Gandhi said it is possible. Mother Teresa said it is possible. All these people say that happiness is possible yet I can’t seem to get a grip on it. I’m beginning to think that true happiness might only be possible in cases of extreme hardship and poverty. And can only be found when you're old, wise, holy and living in a third world country (and in small town with a football team, of course).
I call myself a Christian. As a Christ-tian I think the whole point is to follow the teachings of Christ in hopes that it makes you happy which in turn changes the world for the better, right? If this is true, then why are we not happy? More to the point, why am I not happy, damn it!
-Steve
posted by Steve at 2:18 PM
2 Comments:
maybe happy is just what it is; a momentary thing, a cookie once and ahwile. A feeling you can't enjoy without knowing "unhappy".
No one with a thinking mind can be HAPPY all the time. They would be simple minded. Small towns have suicides, drinking problems, insecurities, and benched players... who are probably "Unhappy".
Small towns have greed=unhappy , they have jelousy=unhappy, and they all have Steves too.
It probably would be good to look at this Happy thing as a big lie you swallowed, thats souring in your stomach has distracted you from enjoying the real life tasteiness. Real.
I think the word you might want, would be closer to "Joy". And that is something that I personally don't know constantly, but it is probably a good goal, even when your down. The word that has gotten you this far is another real one..... "HOPE", that one.. we have.
Happy is for cartoon squirrels.
love ya
What is wrong with us? I so understand every word.
Celexa makes me happy.
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