Happiness

What is it that makes us happy?  For many of us it’s a good book. Finding that story that we just can’t put down, and then as we approach the back of the book seriously hope that it will never really end. Perhaps that’s one reason that electronic books are so popular. You can’t see the end of the book coming. Oh sure we suspect that the detective will eventually find out who killed the body that we found in the first five pages of the book, or discover who it was that stole the silly statue of the Falcon, but we’re having so much fun that we don’t want it to end. All right it’s possible that as someone who writes books I may be prejudice as to what can make someone happy.

It is interesting that what can make some of us happy can make some others miserable. For instance the laugh of a very young child. For some it is the epitome of unsuspected joy. That gurgling giggle that forces us to seek out the creator of that wonderful sound, and bask in the pure joy that it represents. To see that child find for the first time that holding out an ice cream cone to a dog will result in that slobbering lick that will take almost the entire cone from their hand. It may seem a tragic thing that the child has lost its treat, but to the young finding that it can cause a dog to do such an unsuspected thing is amazing. Or perhaps it is something as simple as watching a mother play peek-a-boo. Just holding her hands in front of her face and then opening them to reveal her smiling face to the bewildered child can cause minutes of laughter. It can make you stop whatever you were doing to share in such joy.

For others that laughter is a disturbance to whatever they were doing. This can be especially true for those who were speaking and find their audience turning away from their pearls of wisdom to listen to the child.  “Why is it,” they ask themselves that people want to spend their attention with that annoying sound rather than find enlightenment from their words.  I have seen an entire airplane’s passenger compartment smile at just such a sound, and then notice the one or two special people frowning at what has caused their movie watching experience to turn into a jumble of non-associated sounds.

We are different. Why is it that some of us will look down as we walk along and see a small daisy and smile at the unexpected bit of beauty, while others are disturbed at the intrusion of that floral invasion of an otherwise smooth lawn?  Does the spring rain bring the water that those thirsting forsythia need to break into bursts of yellow beauty, or will it just make the path too slippery to walk on.  Does the sun that surprises us on a March morning bring the promise of warm summer days after the cold of winter, or is it just an annoyance that we have dressed to warmly for the walk to the store?

Does driving past a church as the bridal party departs in a cacophony of horns and confetti cause you to smile and share a small slice of their joy, or bemoan the intrusion into your drive to work and the traffic jam that may result.  Is a star lite night something that causes you to pause and look up at the grandeur of the universe, or does it bring to mind the dangers of the darkened way home?

Happiness is simply what we make of it. Take joy in being alive, don’t fear the end that must someday come.

AND THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH

No I’m not going biblical, although I do find it an interesting book to read. I saw this headline the other day and thought that we might be at the time the meek were making their claim for dominance.

 Bunnies attack at Denver Airport

In turns out that the little fellows were hiding under the cars in the parking lots at the Denver airport to keep warm. Since there weren’t a lot of gardens out there they were dinning on the insulation wrappings of the wires of the car engines. A: Not safe or nutritious for the bunnies, and B: Not good for the cars which were shorting out. It seemed from the story that he bunnies were not as welcome as they would have been for presents on Easter morning.

The authorities are trying a number of ways to discourage the little fellows. They are installing better fences and building perches for predator hawks and eagles. I’m sure we can all see the headlines this summer. 

Airplanes Crashing in Record Numbers from Hawks Sucked into Engines at Denver Airport

Some enterprising souls got the bright idea of coating the wires with fox or coyote urine. It’s supposed to make the bunnies lose their appetite for wire insulation. Of course that brings to mind the next set of headlines.

Hundreds Injured in the Hills Around Denver Trying to Catch Foxes Urinating

Still it all makes for better reading than “Drive by shootings” or “Drone attacks on Speeders.”

Miss Me ?

Not that we’ve missed you, but what have you been doing these past few weeks?

The answer is written on the wind. No never mind that was from a song. The answer really is that I’ve been finishing up the next book with the kind assistance of M. K. Sala. This one has nothing to do with angels or young men who can stop time. Rather it follows the exploits of group of totally human writers who turn to crime solving to supplement their income from non-published books.

Personally I’ve always wanted to have an exploit. I mean I’ve had expletives that were deleted. I managed to miss being shredded by explosions that came near to me. I’ve even tried to explore the hidden mysteries of the Orient, or at least the back roads of Viet Nam, but I don’t think that I’ve ever really had an exploit.

The dictionary says that an exploit is an interesting or daring action or achievement. Well I’ve had what I thought were interesting moments, but I doubt that others would think of them as interesting. As for daring, I’ve tried all of my life to avoid being daring. Heck, I even cringed when in “A Christmas Story” the one boy accepts a “double dog dare” to stick his tongue onto a freezing metal pole. Although, I will admit to laughing at his predicament when he later appeared with a bandage on the tip of his tongue. That’s what doing daring things can get you.

The folks in this book perform daring deeds almost by accident. They solve crimes of monstrous proportions and discover solutions to problems that are so small as to slip under the radar of the most diligent police force. 

Personally I found it to be a very readable book, and I hope that all of you will as well. Take a look and feel free to tell me what you think. The title is “The SPEW House Mysteries” and if you go over to Kindle you can find it   here or you can click on the picture to the right.