Wading in the Velvet Sea

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May 24, 2006

May Daze

I know someone currently homesick. I know someone currently crying in a Starbucks. I know someone currently questioning their future.

Today’s study question: who’s happy?

It’s not a rhetorical question. Seems to me a valid query. Usually I see such levels of melancholy somewhere around Valentine’s Day, where the combo of bad weather and romanticism unrealized combines to form dark clouds over the majority of souls. But never this late in the year, and never to this extent. It shouldn’t be work to find people who can answer “How are you?” with a “Great, thanks!” delivered without a trace of irony.

And it’s not like I’m sitting up here atop Happiness Hill looking down at the huddled, slightly bipolar masses, either. Woke up yesterday to the tune of a major hangover. For some reason, it seemed like a good idea Monday night to enjoy the finales of “24” and “Alias”, not to mention the Sox/Yanks and two Game 7s in the NBA playoffs, with roughly a fifth of rum. In my defense, I didn’t realize how much I was drinking, but that’s a pretty shoddy defense. I’d need Johnnie Cochran on my side to sell that to a jury. (“If the drink wasn’t sipped, you must acquit!”)

Maybe it’s the monsoon season we’ve incurred here in New England. (Eff you, global warming.) Maybe it’s The Girl’s absence. (Eff you, um, Italy.) Either way, not much of an excuse no matter how it shakes out, so I thought I’d do a little project here, and hopefully do it in a non-New Age-y way: simply listing a few things that make me happy. This isn’t some “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough”, chamomile-tea sipping while listening to Yanni records, sort of exercise. One of my least favorite things in the world is to come across a book or a blog where people extol the virtue of their bunny slippers as spiritual saviors. I’ve nothing against bunnies, slippers, or any combination thereof. It’s just all the hollowness of so many of these exercises: bunny slippers can be nice and all, but they are not the solution.

And neither is anything below. But just because I’m not in the Bunny Slipper Fan Club doesn’t mean I don’t see the value in overtly recognizing the need to look around once in a while and recognize some things that make the time between getting up in the morning and going to bed at night a little bit better. These things don’t solve our problems, but they do make us smile, even for a moment, and there’s value in that. So, I’ll throw a few things out there, and I’d like to hear even one thing from y’all that makes you smile. Unless its something like “the desperate cries of help from the children I keep locked in the basement”. Just, you know, keep that one to yourself.

• Jonathan Papelbon
• The feeling after a 10-mile run
• Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Wet Sand”
• Knowing what I am getting my brother for his birthday
• Anticipating the season finale of “Lost”
• Having voice-mail proof that someone drunkenly shook their ass at me from 1,000 miles away

An incomplete list, but good enough for now.

Your turn.

Posted by Ryan McGee at May 24, 2006 09:49 AM

Comments

Posted by: Nick M. at May 24, 2006 11:28 AM

Posted by: Tink at May 24, 2006 12:26 PM

Posted by: Jeanna at May 24, 2006 01:51 PM

Posted by: danny at May 24, 2006 07:17 PM