Yay for the Puppy!

Who woke me up this morning by jumping on the bed, standing with two big paws on my chest and drooling onto my face. Yes, the dog is back to his ebullient self, begging for food, tripping people as they walk by and furring everything I own.

I wanted to share with you everything I have learned from the animal stupid enough to eat himself almost to death, and smart enough to not need anyone to tell him that the greatest of these is love.

Love:

A dog loves openly, fully and without reservation and celebrates that love every chance they get. Did I come home from work, exactly as I do every day? YAY! That's fantastic! We should celebrate! Did I leave for work, fully intending to return, as I do every day? That's sad. I'll be missed every second of the day.

Humans take love for granted and we shouldn't. We are lucky to be loved and that love can be ended at a moment's notice by a car accident or an aneurysm or die slowly over time, poisoned by neglect. We should remember how lucky we are and show our appreciation for the people who love us. They are precious, we shouldn't let ourselves forget that.

Teh Judgey:

A dog doesn't care about old or young, gay or straight, rich or poor, black or white. A dog judges you by how you treat him or her. That's it. If you pet and feed a dog, you're in. There's a lot to be said for that, though it's an easier trick for my dog than for any human.

Fun:

Have it. Now, while you can. There's never a bad time to play, never a bad time to enjoy a belly rub, never a bad time to eat. Today's all there is to a dog, and while I certainly understand the benefits of delayed gratification and working for money instead of playing like I want to, I have also learned to enjoy today, to live in the now and let tomorrow be tomorrow.

Forgiveness:

Dogs are happy to forgive the people they love most anything. There's a lot to be said for that. We all make mistakes, so let it go and let's play.

Defend what you care about:

My dog is willing to put his life on the line to protect us from the mailman's evil intentions every day. We should be willing to fight, if only with words on a little blog, for what matters to us.

Thanks to everyone for caring about my dog. It meant a lot to me. He may be only a dog, but he's taught me more than any book, any religion, any person every did.

Whatever Makes You Happy

That is phrase I heard a lot from my mother. As a child, I drank exclusively from champagne flutes. The first time I asked to drink from a champagne flute instead of regular cup, my mother said, "Whatever makes you happy" and poured my drink into a champagne flute. It made me ecstatic.

Looking back, I think was benefiting from being the third child, in that my mother had learned not to sweat the small stuff. Why argue with a small child about drinkware or matching clothes? Why not let them be happily different in ways that don't really matter? We had rules to obey, of course. Bedtimes were nonnegotiable, as were sharing, getting homework done, manners and a few hundred other things. The small, things, however, were up to us. My mother allowed us to find out joy, and for that I will always be thankful.

When I got older, I learned that not everyone is guided by Whatever Makes You Happy. Most people seem to be guided by Whatever Makes Me Happy. You see this attitude a lot in religion. Wear these certain clothes, read these certain books, recite these certain prayers, believe this and only this, and even in the small things, be guided only by me. Happiness? Fuck that noise. Who needs happiness?

Most people don’t consider that there is something far more important to God than human happiness. We tend to think that we are somehow owed happiness by God--that He is obligated to make sure we live a happy and healthy life.

Hitler was no doubt happy when things were going his way.

God is not anti-happiness, however, the thing that pleases God is something the Bible calls "righteousness." So those who want to please God should take Einstein’s advice with a grain of salt.

If you and I are happy we should make sure that our happiness springs out of righteousness, not out of sin, and that can only happen if our sins are forgiven through trusting in Jesus Christ. Then we should dwell constantly on our eternal future. Everything we say, do, and even think should be in the light of God’s smile or His frown. To claim have everlasting life, and not to do so is to play the hypocrite.

Pic. A happy Hitler

Ignoring that Ray Comfort just Godwinned his own blog - Hitler was happy, do you want to be Hitler?!- I find that entire philosophy to be indescribably sad. What could be more important than joy? What could be more worthwhile than a smile or a laugh? I am not saying that everyone should be unrelenting happy all the time, or that one should harm others in the pursuit of happiness, but to reject happiness as so much dross? Now I'm not happy at all.

I shall have to go back outside and let the soft, warm air and the newly unfurled leaves coax me back to happy. Thankfully, I won't have to ask Ray's god permission before I smile.

All Day Long

Anhedonia

happiness, happy, anhedonia, pursuit, tragedy, loss
or, You Have Issues

I have to say this: If you react to "go ahead, be happy!" the same way I would react to "go ahead, molest children!" YOU. HAVE. ISSUES.

In fact, you probably have anhedonia, the inability to gain pleasure from enjoyable experiences. This is a serious psychiatric condition. If you find yourself unable to obtain any pleasure at all from experiences that you previously found enjoyable, please get help.

I suspect that anhedonia is the cause of this:

Given this, you can understand my struggle with the “pursuit of happiness” made famous by the authors of the Declaration of Independence. For me this phrase has carried hedonistic baggage. It smacks of self-gratification, or in the words of Francis Schaeffer, “personal peace and prosperity.” What exactly did Jefferson, Adams and Franklin have in mind when they penned these famous words?

One of the reasons I can maintain the ability to be happy in the midst of so much physical suffering is a scene I witnessed in high school. My high school boyfriend's mother died, and after the funeral, my boyfriend, his sister, a few other family members and myself stood in front of the church and they all told stories about his mother. The older relatives told stories from their youths, the younger from much more recently. I found myself shocked to realize we were all laughing. The stories were funny (his mother was quite the character), but how could everyone be laughing mere minutes after mourning her loss?

Then I realized something: life is for the living. And the living laugh. The living feel joy, experience happiness, and more than that, the living seek it out. Even in the midst of tragedy, humans can find happiness and laughter.

Find the joy, my friends. It's what life is for.