Happiness
I’m so glad I don’t spend my life “happy”. Why on earth would anyone want to be happy all the time? One loses so much when one only experiences happiness. In fact, I think most “happiness” is completely fake — either induced by chemical substances, escapism, pseudo-therapy, false experiences or fantasy. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t want to be happy at all. It’s so superficially mindless and a sure way to dampen genuine inspiration and creativity. I will, however, treasure times of joy; relish experiences of awe; delight in moments of ecstasy; cherish the cyclic cradle of contentment. But I will never be seduced by the smug smiles of the advertising industry or the forever-grinning faces of positive-thinking pundits, ‘coaches’, ‘mentors’ and other salespeople of 21st century quackery. This is not to say that I will seek out sadness. It will come — inevitably and often through some sudden grief. But I will never seek it out. Neither will I wallow in it when it does come. I will let it work its way through and out of me as quickly and as beneficially as possible. I will, however, welcome the fertile mists of melancholy; for that is the mother of inspiration, the twin-sister of profundity and the teaching-tool of the Muse.
The Naked Troubadour 