Month: December 2008

Joy is contagious: study

Well fuck me silly! Just as flu season is upon us, the British Medical Journal publishes a study showing that we can also catch happiness from those around us. Check it out on the good old CBC.

Here’s the takeaway, in case you’re too goddam busy to pay attention to this nonsense:

Happiness is contagious, and the more people you know who are full of good cheer, the more likely it is that you’re also happy…

Happiness extended to three degrees of separation, from friends to friends of friends….

Damn, i’ll have to cull my social calendar now.

“The pursuit of happiness is not a solitary goal,” Fowler said. “We are connected, and so is our joy.”

… Each happy friend boosts your own happiness by nine per cent, the researchers suggest. On the other hand, having grumpy friends decreased the chances by about seven per cent.

Am i a nine-percenter or a seven percenter? Yippee!

And on the requisite downer note:

The researchers are also looking at the spread of depression, loneliness and drinking behaviour.

My letter to Michaëlle

gg-splash_05The lovely lady holding the reins of Canada in her anachronistic hands is “Michaëlle Jean” <info@gg.ca>

Your Excellency,

It is unfortunate that parliament’s political gamesmanship has made you solely responsible for the country’s governance. That’s not what a democracy should be about, and it reflects badly on all our MPs, and particularly on the Conservative governing party.

With respect, I believe you made the wrong decision in allowing Mr. Harper to prorogue parliament in this time of worldwide economic and environmental crisis. There is a willing majority of elected MPs ready to take power, which represents a strong majority of voters in the last (somewhat frivolous) election.

Mr. Harper is apparently more concerned with brokering and increasing his own power than in properly governing the country. Your agreement to suspend parliament is only enabling him in his counterproductive quest. If you will not reverse your decision, please urge Mr. Harper and his cohorts in the strongest terms to work with all other parties to create acceptable governance.

Respectfully,

Greg Blanchette, Tofino, BC

Reencounter with the Earth

This is the last few paragraphs (pp 223-4) of the book The Teachings of Don Carlos—practical applications of the works of Carlos Castaneda, by Victor Sanchez (1995).

I suspect that it has more of an impact if you’ve spent the past several weeks steeped in the book, as i have. But the picture it paints is lovely regardless, and i felt moved to share it with you. Maybe we’ll cross paths as we walk in search of our secret place.

For this reunion, choose a place that no one else knows about–a place that can remain a secret forever. You may know of a place beforehand, or you can go out and look for one. Preferably it should be in a remote location. If reaching it requires a long walk or climb, so much the better. However, in reality any place chosen for an appointment with the Earth will do since there is no way she will slight you by not responding to your encounter.

Arriving at your place, lie face down on the Earth, embracing her. You must feel and soak yourself in her presence. Then–still embracing and caressing her–begin to talk aloud to her, using intimate and personal words, telling her how grateful you are that she responded to your call, and for always having been there. Explain to her the world from which you have come and why you had forgotten her. Tell her of those lonely moments of life when you did not remember her, of the lack you felt, and how happy this reencounter makes you. Offer her one or two actions that you will carry out in the daily world that will help you remain aware of her presence and company. And finally promise not to forget her again but to love her until the moment arrives when she again takes you into her bosom to free you from all burdens.

At last, give her a kiss and return to the world, immersed in her secret and loving embrace . . .

Jesus got it goin’ on

happyjesus1There are very few words of Jesus actually quoted in the Bible, and the meaning and intent of those words seems to hold little sway over the bretheren. Here’s my favourite J-say:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

–Matthew 6:25-34