Friday, March 29, 2013

Happiness Day

I think you just missed the world's first International Day of Happiness. That passed me by too but the United Nations did legislate March 20 as a day we are supposed to be deliriously happy. London commuters were greeted with happiness street signs at Liverpool Street station, but we had none of that here. Maybe London is a happier place or perhaps the only place to ever pay attention to the dysfunctional United Nation's decrees.

When the United Nations is supposed to be solving world problems they are often creating those kinds of days. It's hard to believe but he U.N. already has 120 days earmarked to observe everything from jazz to rural women. Alas! Forget wars, famine, disease and other world maladies, the United Nations says that "happiness" is a serious 21st-century global issue," I think that this kind of mentality, that happiness is an "issue", is a modern creation. In other times humans believed that happiness or unhappiness were personal perspectives that governments should leave alone.

I wonder what the United Nations could really do to bring happiness to the world. Forget their trying to solve real problems. They never do that. Specifically, the United Nations does not wave a Disney magic wand and declare us happy, instead it appeals to our sense of responsibility and encourages us to work through our current difficulties and not assign undue blame to others. That is, our happiness largely depends on us, our lifestyles, here and now. Isn't that what mom always told us?

If you are going to create a happy day I think you should make us happy, not nag and preach like mom does. I am not sure how we are to "improve our lifestyles". Do we not all have different interpretations of what lifestyles are best, and even about what makes us happy. Hmmmm In my case I thought I was already pretty happy and didn't need a day to be that.. Most of my daily experiences make me happier. But here are a few things that I experience that do not make me happy: cell phone chatter, self absorbed people, reality TV, any modern culture aspect that is trendy, fat guys sitting next to me on my plane rides, stale donuts, running out of toilet paper, getting the smallest piece of cake, looking at my badly shaped nude body after a shower, asparagus. I guess that's a start. The United Nations should work on removing those if they want me to be truly happy.

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