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Misery, Happiness
Filed under: Asides | Tags: | January 1st, 2008
Misery: the secret to happiness. Found via 100 things we didn’t know last year. (10)
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Mark | January 1st, 2008 @ 9:52 pm | Reply
Hey, I was just about to blog the same thing
- Guess I won’t now since Matt has taken the glory!
Rakesh Agrawal | January 2nd, 2008 @ 5:46 am | Reply
I loved the article, thanks for the link Matt.
In the article the author talks about how fairy tales perpetuate the myth of perfection. A couple of years ago we took my daughter to a Disney on Ice production and it was one story after another (Pocahontes, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Mermaid…) of a girl finding her one and only true love and living happily ever after. The way they presented these stories - abridged and one after another - was a scary look into the fairy tale’s take on love and relationships.
Marie-Aude | January 2nd, 2008 @ 6:49 am | Reply
That’s totally true.
People often think happiness is a state of constant wonderful time, when happiness is more a filter that helps to concentrate on good times.
Except (and I’m not so sure of that) in the deepest state of misery, that can’t be that you don’t have “small nice moments” over the course of several days.
Be able to identificate them and appreciate them is the key to happiness.
And that’s the same in a relationship…
Doug Smith | January 2nd, 2008 @ 6:54 am | Reply
The article didn’t touch on it much, but the good news is that it seems to be those trying times that best build our character. As I look back, there are experiences that I would not have chosen, yet I find myself thankful for how they have shaped my life.
I suppose just realizing that makes it easier to accept various problems as they come.
Julie | January 2nd, 2008 @ 1:42 pm | Reply
You know what’s weird? I imagined an entire article in my head before I clicked on the link: I thought that misery would be shown to be the secret to happiness because you have to be miserable in order to value happiness.
But this was also cool.
John | January 2nd, 2008 @ 5:11 pm | Reply
“It’s like you gotta have stuff that sucks so you can have stuff that’s cool.” –Butthead
dKaye | January 2nd, 2008 @ 5:14 pm | Reply
The happy folks in Denmark are irritating the miserable in Italy.
(35. Denmark is the happiest country in Europe; Italy the unhappiest.)
Enjoyed reading those. Thanks, Matt!
Damien | January 3rd, 2008 @ 4:14 pm | Reply
Michael J. Fox was on “Inside the Actor’s Studio” recently and when asked about how he deals with having Parkinson’s and he said this:
“There’s an old tale about a time when God told everyone to put their troubles in a pile. The story goes that they were told to take whatever problem back they chose. Everybody chose their own.”
Kimberly Ann | January 5th, 2008 @ 7:08 pm | Reply
Thanks Matt! That was an interesting article to read, considering that I’ve been feeling quite miserable lately.
Lucia | January 20th, 2008 @ 1:54 pm | Reply
Hello! I’ve just read your interview for La Nacion and im very surprise of your creative.
Then i came to the pc and i found your blog, is great!
well, sorry for my english, i’m from Argentina and is better my spanish ja ja.
It would be great have some contact with you!!
good luck Matt.