I'm Happy

I’ve been doing some consulting work for the Massillon Museum, a gem of a cultural center less than an hour from Ashland (with free admission!) I’ve taken in the Warhol exhibit (SNAP – In the Photobooth with Andy Warhol and Friends), volunteered at the annual Island Party, and mingled with the pep rally fans as they enjoyed Tiger-striped ice cream scooped out by the museum staff. But I missed a recent Art is Alive day, an outdoor juried art show with music, food, and fun. When I asked how it went, one of the staff told me “I know it sounds sappy, but it was a happy day, a happy time.” Helped along by great weather, those in attendance enjoyed being with each other as they celebrating the work of the artists, and everybody seemed to be happy.

Her words stuck with me, and I’ve been on the lookout for “happy” ever since. Leaving a recent Arrows football game, I said, “This was so much fun. I’m happy.” (Of course, a win did lift the happiness meter). Spending time at a housewarming for a young friend who has been house-hunting for way too long, I felt it too – what a happy time. And yes, breathing in the ten game, errorless winning streak of the Cleveland Indians at the end of September brought a happy feeling to me and to thousands of other Cleveland fans. While the playoff loss stings, , there sure were some happy moments on the way to October baseball.

Sometimes, “happy” gets a bad rap. We are called to be serious about the struggles of the world, we are challenged to reach for abiding joy instead of a wishy-washy happiness, we are to search for the deep meaning in life, and I get that. But isn’t there room for some good old-fashioned happiness in our day, in our lives?

How do we find it? Aye, there’s the rub. In our culture of how-to helps, there are thousands of books, podcasts and websites that feature an expert showing us the miracle way to be happy. One is Gretchen Rubin, author of the popular book “The Happiness Project.” At $26.00 in hardcover, I bet she’s happy that her book and its offshoots are on the New York Times best-seller list. Cha-ching! Can’t afford the book? For just $4.99 (each topic), she will send a daily e-mail to you and me for twenty-one days that will help us de-clutter our lives, cope with a difficult person, or quit yelling at our kids (too late for me - I could have used that twenty years ago). No money? Don’t worry - she does have a website with some free tips, such as “four ways to make your food taste better without lifting a finger,” certainly a vital key to happiness.  Just imagine broccoli stalks as dinosaur trees – yum, my mouth is watering already.

We’re also told that we have to work on happiness. Elizabeth Gilbert, writing in “Eat, Pray, Love,” pushes us with these words: “Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it . . . You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.” Really? Sounds too much like work to me, or maybe she’s watched Finding Nemo one too many times. Keep on swimming, swimming, swimming.”

Does it have to be so hard? Can’t we sit in the sun, breathe in the fresh air, skip stones in the water, or cradle the newborn baby, and recognize that it’s a happy day, a happy time? Sometimes, it’s like Dr. Seuss says: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

It wasn’t a special day. We didn’t go to the amusement park or the mall. In fact, although chocolate ice cream was probably involved, I don’t even remember what we were doing, other than spending time together, when our granddaughter, the lovely Madelyn Simone, looked at me and said, “I’m just so happy, Nana.”  Me too, Madelyn, me too.