Thursday, September 24, 2009

Happiness.


Disclaimer: I am writing with the use of all my fingers so no more typo excuses. I am, however, experiencing such hard core abdominal pain that I am writing from bed. So this is what it feels like to have four follicles ovulating at once.

The day after I posted the "Are you happy?" blog, I sat down with my big mug of coffee and the New York Times and just about fell out of my chair when I read Maureen Dowd's column about declining happiness in American women. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/opinion/20dowd.html?em=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1253822732-/d7MrbB6Ty/Q+moEcQLUEA

As you may recall from previous posts, I have always felt a special kinship with Ms Dowd, not because I know her, but because I've read her for YEARS (huge fan) and then ran into her at an airport back in April, slipped her a note to come to my book party and she did. It reinforced my belief in miracles and God. It was a magic moment. Maureen and I are, in my fantastical and delusional mind's eye, red-haired, sassy, soul sisters, who are now writing about the same thing on the same weekend. Creating more evidence that we are indeed more alike than different. If only I had her audience and her job.

So here she is debunking happiness in women with full proof, hard core evidence. The theory being that since the 70's women have too many choices and therefore too many responsibilities than they used to have. Responsibilities include but aren't limited to: dinner on the table at 7:00, gardens, social calendars, kids to school, homework with kids, higher education degrees, full-time, six figure salary job, sex with their husbands, and last but not least, remaining fit and looking young well into their 60's.

There was also a theory in this article that children, although no one will admit this out loud or in print, create more stress and unhappiness than any of the other aforementioned responsibilities. I'm not going to lie. This made me pause and ask myself, "Why am I creating so much stress and unhappiness in the life I have now, trying to have a child that's ultimately, according to Maureen Dowd, only going to increase my unhappiness and stress if and when it gets here?" Is that the definition of insanity? And is it one of those things that seems like such a good idea at the time, but when you get "there" from "here" it's just another "here" with diapers.

Note to Self: There's no "there" there so be happy here.

3 comments:

  1. I do not think women today are less happy than the 70.

    I think that regardless of the genre human beings we can not suppress eagerness, today's woman can perform any eagerness not in vain, we may perform any work without putting aside their personal lives.

    I personally am not a mother, it is certainly difficult to be a father, but only cause unhappiness should fill us with a lot of strength to keep going, must surely be a world to which we escape from the craziness of our lives profecionales, as I am not mother but the experience of caring for my nephew every day I can only say it was fantastic the hours fly past us, creating fantasies and laughing, if it is true but not always little angels fix everything with a small gesture, no matter how tired this or how difficult it was my day, that child has the ability to improve in a few seconds, if I feel this imagine a mother!, so I do not think motherhood make us unhappy.



    say that women are unhappy because some somente to different treatments and cosmetic surgery, wow is paradoxical because part of being happy is to feel good about yourself, we can not avoid being prey to our egos, but because we dificl visual beings and we like feel good about what we see gives us confidence that men do not live this is false because in the last years we see that there are more men in the gyms, beauty salons and even seeking spiritual balance. so I think that both men and women need to balance their lives and use resources dispobles to do so.
    say whether a gender or a generation is more lucky than the other is unlikely. everything depends on you to give meaning to the word HAPPINESS? I think that appeals against the words of
    Walter Beller ¨ ANY WORD IS A LIE TRUTH ¨

    pardon if I could write something general is fine but do not write in English

    julz narvaez

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the things that make us most insane and stressed also bring us the most happiness and it's impossible to sort the two.

    But yes, you must be happy in the here b/c it creates our "there"
    Joy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Apparently happiness is a hot topic... The following links to a Newsweek article, "Is Happiness Overrate?"

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/216147/?GT1=43002

    ReplyDelete