Rainn Wilson has been doing the podcast circuit promoting his new show, Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss, and apparently I'm in his target demographic, because I've heard him interviewed like three times already. The show sounds pretty interesting. I don't know if I'll get to it, because I have a massive "to consume" content list (61 movies, 10 TV shows, 15 podcasts, and 49 books), but it's intriguing. It's something I think about often -- bliss, or it's more fraught cousin happiness. I'm typically a happy person. I feel the entire gamut of emotions, of course -- I'm a human being, after all -- but my default setting is one of happiness, of contentment, of satisfaction. And that's true regardless of my circumstances. Sometimes things happen that propel me out of my mostly happy state, but I always rubber-band back, even if the forces that made me feel unhappy are still in effect. I chameleon it.
This is mostly a good thing. I have so many friends and family members who are the opposite, and who struggle with depression and despair, so I know how terrible the other side can be. Well, I mean, I don't know, but I know enough to know that it's good that I don't know. But being "default happy" has some drawbacks too. A lot of times, for example, I think that I get too complacent in life and don't push myself enough. I've compiled a pretty decent list of accomplishments, but it's all stuff that, truthfully, came relatively easy to me. I work at things, because I enjoy things, so I get good at things, and achieve things, but I never really go for it, you know?
I was content to be a good wrestler in high school but not a state champion; I did fine on the SAT but didn't even practice; I went to state university even though my computer science teacher told me I belonged somewhere "more prestigious"; I learned how to do math and write computer code very well and found a perfectly cromulent job, but I'm not, like, running Silicon Valley or anything; I've written two books that are maybe pretty good,* and I've never tried to publish or market them in a serious way. There are so many times in my life where I feel like I had an opportunity to do more, but I didn't, because I didn't really feel like I had to. I was fine where I was.
* I like them, but I'm biased in favor of me.
To take this to the extreme, one of the story arcs in Succession involves a guy obsessing about the possibility of going to prison, and while watching this I had the thought: You know, I bet I would be fine in prison -- exercising, reading, classes -- I bet I would be okay. To be clear, however, I have absolutely no desire to test this hypothesis.
Anyway, listening to Rainn Wilson (and Eric Weiner who wrote a book influencing Wilson's show) talk about happiness on The Gist with Mike Pesca, I was reminded of a different interview I heard recently, also on The Gist, with Pesca and a fat acceptance advocated named Virginia Sole-Smith. The contours of the discussions are largely the same: To what extent are we bound by genetics and biology? To what extent is society responsible? Can we change our condition through behavior? Should we do so? What role should medical treatment play? Etc.
I don't have any answers to these questions. I just thought the parallel was interesting. Actually, I do have some answers. I'm going to tell you three keys to living a happy and healthy life. I'm not saying that these are sure-fire guarantees for everybody or that there aren't a myriad of other confounding factors. But I am saying that if everybody did these three things consistently, I feel very confident we would be a much happier and healthier society.
1. Exercise vigorously
2. Get off social media
3. Establish/maintain meaningful human relationships
Basically, you need to do the exact opposite of what "the future" has in store. Are we going to get to a point where the only happy people are the ones who don't have $3,500 to spend on an Apple VR headset?
Alright, a few quick hitters and then I'm done.
- Lil' S2's soccer season ended today. I'm glad I was the coach, but I'm also glad it's over. The team wasn't great -- too many kids who just weren't into it -- and that can make it rough at times. You really have to strike a balance between not being too overbearing (their only 7, after all), but also not ruining the experience for the kids who are into it and want to take it somewhat seriously. After the game today, an elderly woman came up to me and said, "I'm a grandma of a kid on the other team, and I just wanted to say, I thought you did a great job today." That's a good way to end the season -- well, that and popsicles.
- I got poked in the eye -- very hard -- doing Krav Maga, and now my eye is all bruised and bloodshot. It was my training partner's fault -- he did exactly what the instructor said not to do in a drill. It's annoying (and painful), but I can't really blame him too much. People make mistakes, and if you sign on to do a contact sport, you are consenting to the possibility of one of those mistakes being made at your expense.
- It is particularly bad timing, though. We were supposed to get nice family pictures taken tomorrow morning, and we can't do it with my eye looking all fucked up. ("No amount of makeup can make that look good," is what the photographer texted when S sent her a pic.) We were supposed to do it last month for S's birthday, but the photographer got sick, and so now we've set up another appointment next month. Third time's the charm, I guess.
Until next time...
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