Notes on the contents of The Happiness Notebook

First a couple of promises from me to you:

Common cursing won't make it in to any of my posts. If I find it necessary for a dialogue passage, I'll use the popular "$&@#!" I won't allow vulgarity in the comments either. I'm not a prude. I curse frequently, but I've decided to keep this Notebook at a level where an interested youngster could read it and a parent would have nothing to fear.

By nature I am a very dry, very sarcastic person. I love to make people laugh though and playful sarcasm is my favorite method for accomplishing that. I am making a strong personal effort to keep the sarcasm at a minimum. It will shine through on occasion, but it should never be mean-spirited. If you catch it, call me out. I'll fess up and fix it.

I've also decided to try and avoid the following topics:

1) Sex--while this can be a critical component in a happy life, in keeping with my dictum of age appropriateness, I won't be posting tips, opinions, techniques or questions on this subject.

2) Alcohol--I like wine and spirits and I am a beer connoisseur, and I believe a moderate appreciation of these is important to happiness. However, in keeping with my self-imposed propriety, I'll likely stay away from this topic.

3) Pop culture reviews--the closest I will get to this is a magazine recommendation, like Esopus, or touting a living composer. I read all the time, so a book that seems practical or carries me emotionally (up or down) might make it here. As for movies and television, they can be fine works of art, but there are many other sites where you can read about them. In the big scheme, these aren't good fodder for happiness notes. Who cares how much I like Heroes or Lost or how much I miss Arrested Development?

4) Politics--many people don't even care about this subject, while for others it is polarizing. I believe that understanding politics, the political process, your system of government and the like are important. I don't believe that our opinions on those things are relevant to this site.

5) Religion--this is the same as politics. Some care passionately about this. Some do not. For some it is critical for their happiness, for others it isn't involved. Spiritual beliefs are an intensely personal matter that vary wildly from one to another. Pushing people away with my beliefs or arguing over our opinions on this subject are not paths to happiness.

6) Sports--supplanting politics and religion in the more advanced economies of the world as the driver of competitve tension and self-identity, sports can cause huge emotional swings and disagreements and sometimes even violence among its followers. I'm talking about fans here, not participants. We will discuss the participatory aspects of sports. The spectator aspect of professional and university sports will not be addressed in this blog. I might make an exception for international amateur sports, including the Olympics. I'm not sure yet.

7) Philosophy of Happiness--a tough one to exclude, but, oh boy, the subject matter here can get tedious with a quickness. I started drafting posts about the differences between pleasure and happiness, or about whether evil people can be happy when doing evil things and I thought, "This isn't a classroom, it's a notebook. Relax, Doug. Have fun. Leave the academics to the academics." I was right. I deleted the draft posts of these things, including my personal theorem about Americans called "The Will to Comfort" where I deftly compare it to Nietzsche's Will to Power and Frankl's Will to Meaning. I demonstrated that their conclusions, like mine, are a product of our historical milieu and that future generations are likely to have their own "will to something" paradigm. I could go on, but, if you are still reading this, then you understand why I decided against posting on this topic. You probably just stifled a yawn.