Happiness American Style
February 22nd, 2008
Is their a particular “brand” of American happiness? It sure seems so. We Americans see happiness as a right, literally and figuratively. Perhaps that why so many of us so eagerly seek out one of the countless books about how to get and stay happy whenever we feel we’re not getting a big enough, or a tasty enough, slice, of that big ol’ American pie. For many of us, lack of happiness isn’t so much a “phase” or an indication of life’s vicissitudes, as it is a clear indication that something must be horribly wrong, that something is (cruelly and unjustly) preventing us from attaining our God-given right to happiness.
in a recent New York Times Sunday Magazine, the current U.S. Poet Laureate, Charles Simic, had this to say: “It’s really frightening. People need to read a book on how to be happy? It’s completely an American thing. Can you imagine people in Naples sitting on a bus or in a trattoria reading a book about happiness?”
When asked his advice for getting happy, Simic said: “For starters, learn to cook.” Leave it to a poet to hit the nail on the head. There are many ways to interpret his answer, I suppose, but for me it says, in part, that happiness is something to be found and nurtured, often through learning, versus something simply presented to us. Too many of us too often just sit and wait for happiness to arrive all bundled up in a basket on our doorstep.
I do believe happiness can be found in books, but I’m not sure “get happy” books are your best bet. I would recommend poetry. And to best explain why, in closing, I offer this poem. By Simic, of course:
WATERMELONS
Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Poems. The Sunday Times. Riding a bus in Naples. Reading a book. The word “vicissitudes.” Buddhas. Green ones.
Hello, happiness.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I’ve found that I am happier when I don’t have to cook, or do the dishes. I do however enjoy eating, so my unhappiness arises from the cause-effect relationship.
Maybe happiness is found when you can find complimentry personalitys in your life.