Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
Marcel Proust Questionnaire
Kerry:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on March 11, 2007, 10:24:35 pm ---7. What is your dream of happiness? Living in a place where I can be outside much of the time and where I can write
--- End quote ---
You'd love Australia, Lee! We enjoy a climate that's very conducive to outdoor living. :D
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on March 11, 2007, 10:24:35 pm ---9. What would you like to be? Happily experiencing my second childhood!
--- End quote ---
I'll join that queue! Oops, too late, I'm already in it! :laugh:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on March 11, 2007, 10:24:35 pm ---16. Who is your favourite hero of fiction? Holden Caulfield, the Virginian, Puss in Boots
--- End quote ---
Ah, Holden Caulfield. It's been a loooong time since I've heard that name. I first read "The Catcher in the Rye" waaaay back in the 60s, when I was the same age as Holden. You've prompted me to dust it off and give it an airing! And moving on briskly, from the sublime to the . . . well . . . um . . . less (or more?) sublime, why did you choose Puss in Boots? I'm intrigued! Do tell! Do tell! ;)
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on March 11, 2007, 10:24:35 pm ---19. Who are your favourite painters? Charles Russell, Klimt, Van Gogh, Turner, Whistler, Vermeer
--- End quote ---
Ah, yes, dear sweet tragic Vincent. How could I ever forget Vincent? Such a beautiful soul. :'(
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Kerry on March 12, 2007, 03:43:05 am ---And moving on briskly, from the sublime to the . . . well . . . um . . . less (or more?) sublime, why did you choose Puss in Boots? I'm intrigued! Do tell! Do tell! ;)
--- End quote ---
Puss made everything possible for his master, he was the master facilitator, LOL! And that's just what I like to be, helping people realize their dreams.
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: Kerry on March 12, 2007, 03:16:46 am ---There's much wisdom here.
--- End quote ---
Or cynicism. ;)
Actually, this philosophy has served me very well, especially in recent years. And it really isn't cynical - it's realistic. (Spoken like a true cynic.) Seriously, even optimistic. I think that many of the unhappy people in the world - and of course I mean the ones who really have no physical or financial reason to be unhappy - are so because their expectations are too high. They expect too much of other people, situations, themselves... And naturally they're bound to be disappointed.
I have one friend in particular - I love her to pieces, but she drives me crazy - for whom the grass is *always* greener on the other side. She is never, ever satisfied. With anything. And she always thinks that the next thing - that new car she's going to buy next week, the new job she's starting, the next marriage - is going to be the answer to all her unhappiness. I tell her time and time again that the problem is she's expecting too much of all these things and not just being content in what she's got RIGHT NOW. She says, "I know, I know... But how do I change it?" I say, "Well, when you feel yourself starting to put too much stock in something that's around the corner, STOP IT. After enough times of concerted effort, it'll become habit." But she just doesn't listen to me. Probably because she's too busy thinking about how her lunch date with another friend tomorrow will be so much better than this one...
Case in point. She worked at a job she constantly complained about for a year. Then she changed jobs. Then she complained about that one for a year. Then she changed jobs again. After the second year, she wanted the first job back. I said, "But remember what you used to say about that place? Do you think it's changed any since you left?" Now that she's at the new job, she wants the second job back - a job, as I say, she constantly complained about for a year, complete with personality conflicts and a condescending manager, who she now says she "misses."
::)
I don't know how or when this philosophy got engrained in me - it's something my Dad used to tell me, but it never sank in until recently. For me, I think it came from having a child and coming out the other side of clinical depression. There's a line in a Phil Collins song I love that I never really felt until about four years ago:
"Well, it really [doesn't] matter much where you are, 'cause home is in your heart. It's a feeling that you wake with one day. Some people keep running all their lives and still find they haven't gone too far - they don't see: it's a feeling inside. The feeling inside."
David In Indy:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on March 12, 2007, 01:00:38 pm ---I have one friend in particular - I love her to pieces, but she drives me crazy - for whom the grass is *always* greener on the other side. She is never, ever satisfied. With anything. And she always thinks that the next thing - that new car she's going to buy next week, the new job she's starting, the next marriage - is going to be the answer to all her unhappiness.
--- End quote ---
I know a few people like that too, Barb. And for the life of them, they can't figure out why I'm satisfied with what I have. They tell me I'm not ambitious enough. They think I should always be striving for something better. Why? I have a house, a boyfriend, a good job, a cute dog and cat, lots of friends and plenty of groceries in the refrigerator. What else could I possibly want?
I see people running around here like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get more and more.
....AND MORE. They could have all the money in the world, and they would still want more. I don't get it.
At some point we need to step back, look at ourselves and our lives and honestly ask ourselves "Am I satisfied? And if not, why?" "What will it honestly take to make me happy?" It really doesn't take all that much. All of these "extras" don't really make us happy; or satisfied. They only help to divert our attention, so we don't have to think about it.
And I also think some people are not happy unless there is a crisis in their life. My sister is like that. If everything is going well for her, she'll find a crisis; even make one up if she has to. I've seen a lot of people do this. They aren't happy unless they're miserable.
It sounds like you and I are very much alike Barb! :D
Thanks for posting this! :)
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: David on March 12, 2007, 05:18:47 pm ---At some point we need to step back, look at ourselves and our lives and honestly ask ourselves "Am I satisfied? And if not, why?" "What will it honestly take to make me happy?" It really doesn't take all that much. All of these "extras" don't really make us happy; or satisfied. They only help to divert our attention, so we don't have to think about it.
--- End quote ---
And you can also vote in my "Do You Agree With Thoreau?" poll about happiness!
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,1951.msg156259.html#msg156259
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version