Key to Happiness

I’ve led a pretty interesting life filled with many lessons, the most important of which is the ability to distinguish genuine from artificial happiness. What separates the two is the longevity and depth of satisfaction it carries.  Feel free to disagree but I have found only a handful of things to hold any bearing in true happiness.  Having everything you NEED is the most fundamental and arguably the most important.  Shelter, food, water and health are in my book the only true human needs and if all these things are fulfilled happiness is just around the corner.  Mental health is as important, if not more so, than physical health and should be ones primary focus in life.  Stimulating your mind, seeking knowledge and internal reflection is key to happiness.  

            Once these four rudimentary elements of happiness are fulfilled only two things remain: companionship and personal gratification.   Surrounding yourself with genuine people is the most consistent way of lifting your spirits.  Dependable, loyal, compassionate and stable relationships tend to ease all “real” pressures and strains in life.  These people are easily recognizable.  They are the ones who can identify your ups and downs before you do and share in the emotions you’re experiencing.  They tend to make themselves available and even when you’re separated by distance or commitments they manifest with an open mind and heart.  They may disagree with you but are intrigued by your opinion and try their hardest to relate with your thought process.  Only a handful of relationships in your life will satisfy these qualifications.  If at all times you have even just one of these companions you should consider yourself extremely fortunate.

            Personal gratification comes in many forms; most are known as “instant gratifications” which lead to the artificial happiness I try to identify and weed out of my life.  Having the newest technology, trendiest clothes and most expensive car; masturbating, promiscuous sex and partying are just a few forms of personal gratification that carry with them an illusion of happiness.   All these things are luxuries people tend to coin as needs when in reality all they do is cloud our perception of what’s really important. The one form of personal gratification I consider most pure, beneficial and significant when considering one’s happiness is the fulfillment of long-term goals.   

            In order to experience this form of happiness one must first identify what they value most.  Once you’ve done that it’s as simple as deciding what about those things you have yet to accomplish or improve upon.  Finally you need a way to quantify or gauge the completion of what you want to achieve.  Setting a time by which to attain your goal is sometimes useful but unnecessary and can often lead to a negative experience.  If you're always worried about running out of time you may feel you’ve let yourself or others down and lose sight of why you set the goal in the first place.  I find open-ended goals with checkpoints in the foreseeable future allow you to remain realistic, stay on task and enjoy the rewards of patience and consistency.

            Nothing I’ve said is groundbreaking and I’m sure you’ve all had similar thoughts.  I simply find it important to remind myself of what truly matters in life and useful to put it into words.  Like I said earlier, reflection is key to mental health.  A healthy mind is a realistic and unimpressionable mind.  Without this we are coerced into believing things we don’t need will bring us happiness.  Living with a heart filled with want leads to gluttony, greed and evil.  It’s time to recognize our resources as limited and treat them as such.  Instead of trying to buy happiness build it, cultivate it, maintain it and share it.

Can Dogs have Alzheimers?

Rusty has officially lost it.  I come home after a much needed reunion with some of my old fraternity brothers to find trash strewn across the floor and a once half filled bag of stale cookies reduced to crumbs.  He wasn’t throwing up or acting too strange at first so I didn’t warrant a trip to the vet necessary.  Instead I just kept an eye on him and took him for frequent potty breaks.  The oddities ensued when we retired to bed.  Every two to three minutes rusty would become restless, hop off the bed, walk around to the other side, hop up and lay down.  Occasionally I would wake to avatar-esque sounds and see the old man staring at a wall. I was alarmed when I opened my eyes and he was awkwardly hunched in the corner staring at my girlfriend.  It appeared as if he had been watching her for quite some time and even after calling his name several times his gaze wasn’t broken. I watched him for the next couple minutes when all the sudden he snapped out of it and ran around the bed into the side table. I’m convinced if we had set up night vision cameras we’d have half a paranormal activity, canine edition blockbuster.

            This morning my girlfriend found him half way in the toilet unable to free himself.   He was obviously suffering from sleep deprivation.  He kept running into walls, chairs, falling over nothing and convinced the water in his bowl was an insufficient second to the toilet.  The moment I closed the bathroom door he started pawing it ferociously for 20 minutes.   Finally he gave up and lapped down the water in his bowl, as well as the water in my younger, dementia-free dachshund, Ein.  Three bowls later and his thirst still isn’t quenched.  He continues to pace from bathroom to dog-bowl at a feverish pace. 

Rusty is completely uninterested in his food even though he has most certainly relieved himself of last nights cookie feast.   He refuses to lay down or be still.  He is currently pacing back and forth in my living room, pausing to stare in a corner or to look at something on the floor that isn’t there.  I am convinced he is hallucinating or seeing ghosts.  Even Ein seems concerned.  He keeps walking up to Rusty and licking his face and paws, perhaps to lap up any remaining beard crumbs.  Rusty just walked up and bit the broom leaning against the wall and is precariously pacing around the couch.   I will say this, for a 12 (almost 13) year old dog that had no more than an hour of sleep last night he is impressively determined to accomplish……. something.  I’m just not so sure he even knows what that something is.   Keep the old man in your prayers, he may need an exorcism. 

A Tip of the Hat to Columbia PD

       One week ago I receive a citation for making an illegal left turn on to a COMPLETELY vacant road.  I understand the officers frustration with my dangerous intentions as he had to leave the line at Hardee's to pull me over.  He must have thought I was a menace to society as I pulled in to a flower shop to buy roses for my girlfriend and my 2 year anniversary. After composing my ticket and ensuring me he was simply trying to protect and serve, he went on to lecture me about my dog sitting on my lap (Ein was ferociously growling the entire time). I challenged the illegality of my canine passenger, he rolled his eyes and replied, "well it should be," and went on with his day.  Thirty minutes later on my way to class he had another victim pulled over and yet another upon my return.
     Yesterday I received another citation.  I pull up first to a 4-way stop sign intersection, followed by an officer directly across from me and last to the occasion a school bus to my left.  Half way through my left turn, the school bus turns on his flashers and stop sign.   Already in motion I continued to pass the bus.  As children start to file out of the bus the officer made his move and zoomed after me.  He followed me into my apartment complex parking lot and approached my vehicle with his hand on his firearm.  His approach was less of a lecture and more of an aggravated/cynical outburst.  He berated me claiming I put him, the bus driver, the children and myself in danger so I could, "get back to my cheeto's." It took every ounce of restraint in my being not to explain that he in fact was the only one who endangered anyone.  Instead, when he returned with a ticket, I BEGGED man-to-man for a break.  I explained I had just received a moving ticket and couldn't afford any more points on my insurance.  He said, "that's too bad," and returned to his vehicle.  As he sped off he almost hit a skateboarder, honked is horn and threw his arms in the air as if it was the kids fault.
      My girlfriend arrived minutes later unaware I had received a new ticket and told me she saw two or three people pulled over in the 6 minute drive from her place to mine.  Growing up in the city of Saint Louis I understand and appreciate the service and stress an officer of the law undergoes.  Unlike my experience with Columbia PD, the officers I've interacted with in my home city had every intention to protect and serve.  Thus far the police officers of Columbia, Missouri seem more concerned with protecting their jobs by servicing a quota.  The first ticket I almost understand and luckily I have a lawyer for a dad willing to help me reduce it to a non-moving violation.  The second citation I have every intention of fighting in court.  I consider it my civil duty to explain to the judge that this officer was more concerned with writing me a ticket than the safety of the children on that bus.  I'm tired of these assholes already and I've been here less than a month.  I've decided to buy a bike and be a legal inconvenience on the road, slowing down in front of every cop car I see so I can accurately send an anal salute in their direction.  Ice Cube's voice keeps ringing in my ear, "Fuck the police coming straight outta COMO!"

Behind The Entrepreneur

       What makes one an entrepreneur? To me the answer is simple, the unwillingness to accept conventional or otherwise expected means of providing for oneself and taking the risk to be your own brand.  Refusing to believe the path we’re force fed our entire lives is the only way to success.   Understanding success is not limited to or measured by wealth.  Recognizing you are more than a degree, certificate, job description, social class or any other label is liberating. The desire to embrace your individuality offers one a fresh perspective of what’s important.  The moment I realized my talents were more than avocations my identity manifested.   I started to see through the bullshit and opened my mind to alternate means of earning my way.  If I could find a way to turn my blessings into something more, then I too could reach greater heights of purpose and satisfaction.  Happiness gained new meaning when I gained the courage to leave the herd.  My heart was filled with energy, my spirit overwhelmed with creativity, my entire essence inspired to see what life truly had to offer.   

            Erase everything you’ve ever learned and what’s left?  Instinct, survival of the fittest, family and a clean slate to mold and refine.  If this is how we started what entity corrupted us into accepting anything other than what we love as significant or real?  I hold no authority to deem my answer absolute but in my eyes it has to do with the notion that economic progress is more important than personal and individual development.  Some where along the way man was brainwashed into believing society is more precious than the personalities that make it.  I for one am tired of being told how I’m “supposed” to live my life and what to I’m “supposed” to believe. 

            When time and time again institutions crumble, economies collapse and conventional thinking is disproved it amazes me that the majority of people are still disillusioned and fooled back into the scheme.  I am not a creature meant to live restrained by any structural agenda.  I am what no one else can be, me, and I plan to stay that way.  I am a survivor and a fighter.  I can see the blows coming my way and react accordingly.  I don’t look away, I don’t look down, I stare adversity dead on and keep it at bay.  I am an artist and creator.  I appreciate the beauty around me and express it in my own unique way.  I don’t alter my creativity to satisfy others or shy away at criticism.  I continue to produce my feelings and emotions into something tangible so I might gain deeper understanding of my inner self.  I am a leader. I am a teacher. I am a listener. I am an entrepreneur.