Happiness. . .

(from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200501/happy-hour by Carlin Flora)
". . . The things we expect will bring us lasting joy rarely do. Whether it's losing 25 pounds, getting a major promotion or watching a troupe of perennial losers finally win the big one, long-anticipated events give us a swell of glee... and then we settle back into being just about as happy as we've always been. Most of us have a happiness "set point," fixed by temperament and early life experience, which is very difficult to shift. Whether you win the lottery or wind up in a wheelchair, within a year or two you generally end up just about as happy (or unhappy) as you started out.

Yet the quest for happiness isn't futile. Psychologists now believe that many of us can turn the well-being thermostat up or down a few notches by changing how we think about anticipation, memory, and the present moment. Our sense of well-being is intimately tied into our perception of time. The problem is that we usually get it wrong. Memory tricks us—we don't remember our experiences properly, and that leaves us unable to accurately imagine the way we'll feel in the future. At the same time, expectations mislead us: We never learn to predict what will make us happy, or how to anticipate the impact of major life experiences. . . "

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Grass. . .

 

. . . growing two feet high
Casting awful shadows
Bicycles, cupboards all awry
Pieces of linoleum pie flash by

His family had nothing to say
So embarrassed
Helpless too
What makes a man turn out this way
Can he change or is this how he'll stay

There's just no talking to the junk man
There's just no talking to the junk man
With shelves and pottery stacked to the sky
He won the lottery back in 05
Now he's a millionaire
But he can't find anything
In all the junk

The neighbors don't know what to do
They've got visions of a jungle
No one thought they'd see the neighborhood
In this state
You know this can't be good

There's just no talking to the junk man
There's just no talking to the junk man
With shelves and pottery stacked to the sky
He won the lottery back in 05
Now he's a millionaire
But he can't find anything
In all the junk

The Junkman
©2009 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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I would like. . .

. . . to be BORED again.

I have NOT been bored since I was probably 20 years old. What once seemed a fate worse than death. But now, with additional years and responsibility, the very prospect of having more time available that activities to fill it holds desirability comparable to that of winning the lottery.

. . . eight hours of work five days a week, composers group meetings and plans to be made, band rehearsals, playing piano, composing, transcribing, recording, cooking, cleaning, sleeping, moving furniture, clothes etc. for the painter, preparing for my son's shoulder surgery, attempting to stay warm as winter winds down, hearing of Tokyo's severe earthquake and resultant tsunami activity with warnings issued for the U.S. West Coast where another son resides wondering if he is aware, wondering how close he is to the ocean, wondering how high in altitude is his neighborhood, mentally planning how to accomplish my goals at work today in half a workday. . .

Ah, to be able to wander down the alley, kicking a stone and wondering how to fill the hours of just another day. BORING!!!???

(Hear my music at http://www.rayjozwiak.com)