All this is hitting the spot this afternoon, as I sit here listening to Tommy Dorsey Cha Cha arrangements, including Tea For Two and Patricia (La Dolce Vita)! I think the problem with the notion of happiness for the young is that the young are given targets or goals which, they are assured, once secured, will bring them stability, security, this thing called love and general happiness. Most involves a lot of effort and pain first and most of it is, ultimately, hogwash in my view - including the bank advertisement that I saw today ''Consider how much freedom there is in a lifetime Tracker mortgage'' - QUITE! JUST CONSIDER HOW MUCH! Happiness for me now (pushing 55), primarily derives from being as free as possible from the need to do things against which my spirit essentially rebels (e.g. dealing at length with unpleasant types of people). That's the heart of the matter for me. I also always need something to do. I hate being idle and sitting on the beach just isn't possible for me. Money and things don't bring you happiness, as such (although they can make enjoying an otherwise happy state more comfortable) and people will bring you happiness only if you do not expect anything from them. Let them bring what they have to the party but don't tell them (especially wives and children) to bring vintage champagne.

I also came across someone recently whom I have not seen for 30 odd years and her picture was on her firm's website - definitely her but instead of a pretty, smiling 20 year old girl, there stared out at me a bitter, angry, scowling, 50-something grump-frump. Shocked, I nearly did not contact her but, fortunately, I did and she then sent me a family snap with her looking just as I hoped she would be looking - the other picture had (evidently) been taken on a bad-hair day. However, I remember Bill Bryson writing about this type of experience and he describes a childhood crush he had on a girl at school and how impossibly pretty she had been. Years later, he met her at a reunion and she had become just another plump Mum - but a girl who had been very plain before had blossomed into film star looks - and Bryson says (I think rightly) that life can be splendid like that - redressing the balance - the phenomenon of The Ugly Duckling becoming a swan.

Last edited by doghouse (2014-02-15 11:07:08)

I haven't read any recent Bryson. I liked Notes From a Small Island and Notes From a Big Country and the whining in those (e.g. about wanton destruction of familiar, built environments) I approved of - but can't comment on anything later.

/\ liked Walk in the Woods

It must be nice to have a face like a tin drum at age 60 but a life of 'raw vegan' with no booze, steaks, fags, sugar, milk-shakes, ice cream, hot roasts, crunchy animal fat and stuff would be a nightmare. Just a different 'take'.

But I do sun and moon and star-gazing though - when I am too pissed to crawl off the road and into the ditch.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2014-02-18 01:43:42)

^ HA