The Deception of the Thrush

1) Family (re)unions are organized?

2) Old...*so* old. By the way, is that from "Harold and Maude"? If so, that's my favorite film, so I'm feeling younger already!

3) "Happiness, however, is something essentially subjective" says Freud in "Civilization and Its Discontents". If we were to know what happiness "meant", per se, it would cease to be subjective and our ability to define it to ourselves and *for ourselves* would disappear, likely taking any affective (or feeling of) "happiness" right along with it.

John, I am so glad you are back. How did you know I was actually hoping you'd help me out with #3? These comments are from a 21-year-old friend of mine. I'm a bit concerned about him--should I be?

"Harold and Maude"!!----you are so right! I hadn't heard of the movie. Actually I read the quote etched on a letter-opener for sale in a catalog and found it intriguing. You're fantastic, John! I'm going to rent the movie this weekend.

Re: "I'm a bit concerned about him--should I be?"

I'm wavering on whether or not to respond to this at all, but if you'll allow me the caveat that I can only speak for myself, and don't mean for this to carry over as advice or counsel in any respect, I'll offer my personal reactions:

Taking my cue from Freud, as quoted above, we are constantly engaged in what is popularly known as "the pursuit of happiness." Alternatively, different people may address this as symptomatic of "the 'Me' generation" or a kind of "hedonism" or functioning under the direction of "the pleasrue principle." Examining your quote, it doesn't suprise me in the slightest that a 21-year-old would be tarrying internally (i.e., going "with the gut") with the relationship between time, in the abstract (e.g., "Don't take too long with a decision; chances pass and opportunities are lost."), or the feeling that "Life is too short" (don't we encounter this same injunction in Herrick's "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time" when the author entreats us to "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"?) and this pursuit of happiness. Happiness, as pursuit, establishes itself less by destination than by journey, which this 21-year-old may be articulating by positing the difference inherant within "decisions" (which limit object choice) and "reactions" (which simply define them). I would be more concerned by someone who claimed to know, without reservation, what "happiness", in toto, entailed. Almost any complete foreclosure or radical delimiting of object choice is, by its very nature, pathological. For example, if I **decide** that my happiness is solely dependent upon consumption of chocolate cake, and resolve to eat nothing else, I'm making a choice that, while it might make me happy in the moment, will eventually, over time, do me harm. Alternatively, and I think this might be the crux of this 21-year-old's "meaning-making" with regard to happiness, if I simply **react** to chocolate cake with "happiness" then I have simply confirmed one of many potential object choices to elicit happiness. As such, I haven't ended my pursuit, but simply marked one of the happier stops on Life's way.

"It's got to be the goin', not the gettin' there, that's good."---Harry Chapin, right?

"Marked one of the happier stops on Life's way"---I like that---It's a good thought. Thanks John, I just felt I needed to "talk" with you.

Hi all -- thanks for contributing -- I thought surely University Libraries would blast away my vacant blog and clear way for another tenant. It's good to see it's still active. I'm in the middle of a crazy busy semester but will return...

Oh goodness. We can't have you "deblogged." Enjoy your San Francisco conference, and I'll "mind the store". When you are back, you can share your adventures. Meanwhile I'll be watching Slow Learner for stories from London!