Friday, June 29, 2012

It's four in the morning. Who will you call?

"Is there someone in your life whom you would feel comfortable phoning at four in the morning to tell your troubles to?  If your answer is yes, you will likely live longer than someone whose answer is no."

from Flourish by Martin E.P. Seligman

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The songs of your childhood

For an inexplicable reason, I suddenly remembered this little ditty from my childhood:

"Where oh where has my little dog gone?
Where oh where can he be?
With his ears cut short and his tail cut long,
Where oh where can he be?"

Why, I haven't a clue!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The state of Yearning

 This state is populated with keeling bodies leaning against walls, keening over parapets.  In this state, no one is happy, but everyone will be happy soon.  The potential for happiness is the highest in the country, but so is the suicide rate.  When they quit yearning, they ablate.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Go Too Far

Last summer I was visiting my cousin Chris in Salt Lake City.  One morning while having coffee, we happened to meet a friend of hers, film maker Jan Andrews, who told us this anecdote about Werner Herzog, when he was filming True Believers, about a religious group in Russia who lived around a lake.

These "true believers" were convinced  that in the winter when the lake froze they could look through the ice and see a fallen city.  In making the film, there was a scene where two men were on their knees peering through the ice.  A young colleague of Jan Andrews was on hand when Herzog remarked that they were not members of the cult, but two drunken peasants that he paid to pose for the scene.  The young filmmaker was appalled that Herzog would do such a thing.

Herzog looked directly at him and said, "Go Too Far."

Monday, June 18, 2012

I (Heart) Mondays

Here's a concept:  I'm taking the day off!  Excuse me while I stretch out on the bed and read a book at 9:30 in the morning and I'm not sick, not depressed.  I'm taking Monday off!