Happiness and Vampires

Okay--the title doesn’t go with the photo, in case you’re wondering. I just have to talk about everything for the past month, and some things are photographed and some aren’t. The photo is from a day trip to Split Rock Lighthouse (behind us) and assorted attractions in the Duluth area. I went with Gerardo (left) and Kurt (right). (I’m in the middle.) Gerardo is from Mexico, where they have pyramids that are thousands of years old (or something) and Kurt is from Germany, where they have castles from the 1300s. They came all this way to see the ancient attraction of Minnesota, a 97-year-old lighthouse. Well, we all do what we can to contribute to the history and culture of the world!

The title (I’m getting to it--hang on!) refers to two books I read in the past month. They have nothing to do with each other. One was about happiness and one was about vampires. Of course I’ve read other books in the past month, but these were more life-changing than the others.

The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think is Right is Wrong by Jennifer Michael Hecht is a new book I picked up at a conference in Chicago last month. It was free; that’s why I bought it from the publisher’s display table of free books to give away. I started reading it that night and used every available moment of free time to continue reading it; it’s deep and full of philosophy that is significantly over my head, but I loved it! It made me think of things I had never thought of before, and even if it isn’t 100% verifiable fact, still had enough wisdom to shake my view on a few key areas. One of my favorite points: there are three types of happiness (these are my terms, not hers): ecstasy, pleasure, and joy. (She calls them euphoria, a good day, and a happy life, but I find the abbreviated terms easier to think about for me.) These are all good and should be pursued by a person desiring happiness--none to the exclusion of the others--but the problem is that they are nearly mutually exclusive at any given moment. Fascinating! Perhaps that’s why happiness seems so elusive. We need to balance our types of happiness and we can’t get them all the same way. So sometimes we need to eat “naughty” food because we really do need the mental pick-me-up it gives us as much as we need the discipline and health that skipping the naughty food would provide. It’s about balancing them all, because we need them all.

The other book was a gift from Jenny Sass--Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I have to confess that when she told me she was reading a teen vampire romance by a BYU grad I thought there was something seriously wrong with the world in general, if not just with her mentally. So when it showed up in a gift bag on May 2 (I celebrated my birthday a day early with my former roommates, for those of you keeping track) I thought maybe someday if I had nothing better to do I’d pull it out and see how bad it really was. That happened a few days (maybe a week?) later. At 9 p.m. I was getting a little tired so I decided to read for an hour or so before I fell asleep. I was aware of nothing else until 11 p.m., but all thoughts of sleep had fled my mind. At 1 a.m. I checked my progress and decided I could finish it in an hour. At 2:30 I was done and desperate for the sequel, although I was finally tired enough to sleep. Two days later I bought the sequel, New Moon, with a B&N gift certificate from Nell and finished it by 1:30 a.m. I’m not going to say much about the book, only to say that it’s wonderful (they both are, but I liked Twilight better) and if you have 6+ hours to kill (unless you are a fast reader) you could do worse. What am I saying!? It’s the best book ever! Okay--maybe there are a few more (ahem) significant books out there, but none of them have a hero like Edward (sigh). Oh no, I’ve said too much.

Happiness and Vampires

Thursday, May 17, 2007