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1 " But 'contentment'. Is that happiness? Or is that only resignation wearing a funny hat? "
― Lisa Grunwald , Whatever Makes You Happy
2 " There is a strong connection between our ability to use our hands in useful work, and our ability to find happiness in daily life... daily repetitive tasks (are) the compulsive calmness that infuses our pedestrian chores with poetry. - Annie Modessitt "
3 " Clearly I have a talent now: I can trace every single thing back to a certain, scared place in the map of my heart. "
4 " Michael stands at the dresser, putting his comb into his back right pocket, his wallet into his back left pocket, his keys into his front right pocket. A place for everything , and everything in its proper place. Except, perhaps, his wife. "
5 " I slide down between the sheets beside him, like a secret letter slipped into the safety of an envelope. And dream of ancient places, where everyone is young. "
6 " I hope we're not intruding,' she croons, sweetly. "Well, I say, "I was trying to get a little work done." I give T.J. a fuck-you-I-don't-look-weird-get-the-hell-out-of-here-look, but apparently only I know what the look is meant to convey. "
7 " Look," I say at last. 'You know me. You know my life. I always thought-or hoped-""You thought what?""I just want to be happy," I finally say.She stares at me hard."You have been," she says. "
8 " You're into happiness?" the technician says, her eyes never leaving the computer screen."I'm writing a book about it," I say."About happiness?" she says."Yes," I say." Didn't the Dali Lama already write that book? "
9 " bearing a bouquet of cleaning supplies and a bucket as a vase. "
10 " The large yellow rectangle shrinks until, like a tiny knot on a long thread, it is woven into the city’s fabric. "
11 " Happiness,” I say, “is a cigarette and a desk to smoke it at.” He grins and offers the pack to me, but I shake my head. “Keep talking,” he says. “Some people think there’s a gene for it,” I say. “A happiness set point. Like in weight. Some people think it’s friendship. Aristotle thought it was virtue. No one has a different definition of anger, or sadness, or envy. But happiness is—it’s—a shimmer. It’s a note. Trying to describe it is like trying to describe music. Or color. Or taste. It’s reaching your toes down and finding the cool part of the sheets. It’s hearing the song you were trying to remember. It’s fresh cheesecake and a cup of coffee. Breast-feeding. Victory. Hope. It’s knowing exactly what you’re supposed to do. Love. Being loved. Falling in love. Making things. Feeling safe. Knowing exactly what you’re supposed to do— "
12 " Compulsive calmness indeed. When I was quitting smoking, I did this sort of thing all the time: jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, needlepoint, knitting, solitaire. They are all forms of self-hypnosis, I think, and they make me dreamy and blank. "
13 " T.J. is addicted to ever new forms of comfort while oblivious to the need they might reveal; "
14 " For T.J., it’s simply an article of faith that happiness will be the natural by-product of success. "
15 " sculpted and refined by hours upon hours of exercise, walking stairs that lead nowhere, riding bikes that go nowhere, rowing phantom rowboats, wearing immovable cross-country skis. "
16 " is envy just the illusion that the problem of happiness can be solved? "
17 " And is there a difference, I wonder, watching the ease with which T.J. settles back into her reading, between the happiness of being happy and the happiness of being happy because you think someone might be less happy than you? "
18 " Maybe, I think, happiness is simply order. "
