Happy.
I was just watching a programme that looked incredibly boring and then wasn't. It was about trying to raise the overall level of happiness in one of the dullest towns in Br1tain - Sl0ugh - by sending out volunteers, giving talks and arranging various mass 'happenings'. They had found that the happiness level in parts of Br1tain was lower than in rural Ch1na.

One of the 'experts' studied the local secondary school and found that the children were mostly anxious and stressed and had insanely dreary plans for their own futures. With making money the top goal and any idea of fun or happiness in their careers never considered. He said that it had been proved that people in rich economies were not made any happier by having piles of stuff and rising to higher standards of living .. once your original was quite high anyway .. also had NO higher percentage points of happiness. I could have told him that.

They decided that the main thing was to have a loving relationship with your family and friends. Hmmm ... Possibly. I have an exceptionally close relationship with my children .. who are also my friends. But I don't especially care about any actual friends .. however old they are ... I can't think of one who I would mind about if I was told I would never see them again. Perhaps that means I am REALLY WEIRD? I love meeting new people and finding out everything about them as if I were reading a book. But sooner or later they start to seem a bit repetitive and samey and by then I am just as happy to talk to someone else. I think it is partly because - as I am shy - I can only say what is uppermost in my mind and so have 'deep' conversations with everyone and don't save all my secret thoughts for a tiny close group. I am just as likely to moan about my husband to the man rebuilding the roof as to bother to go and ring up some childhood friend to discuss the same thing.

I have found that happiness comes from having control over your own life and not having to be sycophantic to anyone. All the older women I know who are noticeably happy have their own money .. from whatever source .. and the most miserable are dependent on their husbands for everything.

Actually, I am boring myself here ...
- posted by Iris @ 11/29/2005 11:10:00 PM comment