Oh, weird and wonderful, I feel like myself again!
What a relief.
I haven't felt my usual sense of happiness for months--(I don't mean delirious happiness, just my normal my baseline, you know, where I usually hang out).
I'm not sure what all conspired to knock me off that--though obviously there was the shock of an unbelievable new president; and my old pal Kathy died right before her 60th birthday; then my father went on hospice; and something about the editing process for the fandom book didn't gel; plus a bunch of other stuff--mostly little, (like watching Grizzly Man), but draining.
So, I guess all that'd be enough, eh?
My default when I'm unhappy is to curl up, possum-mode--I don't want to do anything, can hardly even imagine wanting to do anything.
I may do things anyway (like, the ABCderian), but without much vitality. bink was the steady force behind that (huge thanks to her!).
And this morning, I wanted to do things again for no particular reason. Just because.
One thing I did was I looked into the company that makes Nike's amazing ads--Portland, Oregon-based Wieden & Kennedy--because I want to work for them, (or, rather, I want to work doing something fun & creative), and I found this, their Emmy Award–winning "The Morning After" (1999)--which, I cannot believe how prescient this one-minute mini-movie is:
a guy wakes up on New Year's Day, 2000, and all the dire predictions of Y2K breakdown have come true--and he goes for a jog:
The crazy thing is that US breakdown didn't happen dramatically on January 1, 2000, but rolls out in bits and pieces, over time... the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and the ongoing wars and all that followed; the 2008 mortgage crisis; the inauguration of Trump on January 20, 2017, and onward-- and pop culture has reflected it with apocalyptic or zombie TV shows, books, zombie pub crawls, etc.
But when I watched the ad, I thought---yeah, psychologists say that after you get used to the new "it", whatever "it" is, you return to your personal set point of happiness, whatever it is. Humans are like squirrels: whatever's in the dumpster, we can eat it... and even be happy, or maybe as happy as we were going to be anyway.
Geez, I didn't mean to do social analysis, I wanted to say I had a great day simply feeling like my normal self. Yay!
What a relief.
I haven't felt my usual sense of happiness for months--(I don't mean delirious happiness, just my normal my baseline, you know, where I usually hang out).
I'm not sure what all conspired to knock me off that--though obviously there was the shock of an unbelievable new president; and my old pal Kathy died right before her 60th birthday; then my father went on hospice; and something about the editing process for the fandom book didn't gel; plus a bunch of other stuff--mostly little, (like watching Grizzly Man), but draining.
So, I guess all that'd be enough, eh?
My default when I'm unhappy is to curl up, possum-mode--I don't want to do anything, can hardly even imagine wanting to do anything.
I may do things anyway (like, the ABCderian), but without much vitality. bink was the steady force behind that (huge thanks to her!).
And this morning, I wanted to do things again for no particular reason. Just because.
One thing I did was I looked into the company that makes Nike's amazing ads--Portland, Oregon-based Wieden & Kennedy--because I want to work for them, (or, rather, I want to work doing something fun & creative), and I found this, their Emmy Award–winning "The Morning After" (1999)--which, I cannot believe how prescient this one-minute mini-movie is:
a guy wakes up on New Year's Day, 2000, and all the dire predictions of Y2K breakdown have come true--and he goes for a jog:
The crazy thing is that US breakdown didn't happen dramatically on January 1, 2000, but rolls out in bits and pieces, over time... the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and the ongoing wars and all that followed; the 2008 mortgage crisis; the inauguration of Trump on January 20, 2017, and onward-- and pop culture has reflected it with apocalyptic or zombie TV shows, books, zombie pub crawls, etc.
But when I watched the ad, I thought---yeah, psychologists say that after you get used to the new "it", whatever "it" is, you return to your personal set point of happiness, whatever it is. Humans are like squirrels: whatever's in the dumpster, we can eat it... and even be happy, or maybe as happy as we were going to be anyway.
Geez, I didn't mean to do social analysis, I wanted to say I had a great day simply feeling like my normal self. Yay!
Yay, indeed! I am trying to find joy in the small things; the brief, minute fragments of heartbreaking beauty that comes my way. What surprises me, now that I am noticing again, is just how many they are, and the unexpected places they are found.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Fresca; good for you. Thank you for letting us in on your great day of happiness.
Thanks, Crow.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think the world specializes in "brief, minute fragments of heartbreaking beauty"...