The Great Happiness Hunt.....

Some days I dont write my blog because I have nothing interesting or amusing to say. I am kind of creatively flat lining.
Its the Blog version of a "duvet day."
Have you heard about those? Apparently in some parts of America, you get a quota of days called "duvet days". They aren't holiday, and they aren't sick days. They are days where you can wake up (probably on a Monday) and be completely honest with your boss and say "You know, I really don't fancy it today, I'm gonna give it a miss if you don't mind, and stay in bed today. Cheers. See you tomorrow."

I'm not sure what the purpose is exactly but they're freakin' genius. And I fully enforce them on my blog staff. (Thats just me, by the way.) I dont want the blog to feel like work, I want to continue enjoying her, I love her.( Although I DO want the blog to feel like work in that I could get paid to do it..... )

Some days I am so inspired by the ride I am taking with my children, I have to share. Hopefully you agree that they are both amusing and poignant at times. (If you dont agree, then please refer to yesterday's blog about being Wrong.)

Some days I just feel good and want to amuse my readers. Although having just tapered off my happy pills, who knows when that will happen again...

But SOMETIMES..... I read or hear something that tickles my silly bone.
Thats not a funny bone - different altogether.
My silly bone is the one that niggles me when I get wind of something I think is Silly. Or sometimes Stupid. Or Bonkers, or just plain Easy to Ridicule.

I have taken inspiration from this category today.
I was at the hairdressers today (thats not the silly part), and I read about The Happiness Project.
Now, I do realize that  according to the sales figures of this book, I am probably the only person in the world who hasn't read it.
And it is this barely-informed position from which I speak to you today.

The western world's obsession with being happy. Apparently it is something we all cant do without being told how.
The woman who started this "project" (I think she was also behind selling bottled air and the ab cruncher) is apparently an expert on 'the lessons from popular culture on how to be happy'. The journalist who wrote the article I read said "it feels like she is shaking her cheer-leading pom poms at your soul"...... Uh-huh. Right.
See the problem there is that wouldn't make me feel happy, it would make me feel irritated.
Do you know what else makes me feel irritated? Teaching people how to suck eggs.

Have we really come to this?
I know there have been 'Happiness' books around forever, (like since the 50's when women were allowed to have feelings coincidentally...) but apparently this isnt just a book - its a MOVEMENT.
GIVE. ME. STRENGTH.
To buy into this you would first need to believe that you are miserable. Well you wouldnt buy the damn book if you were allowing yourself to think you might already BE happy right?

Now, I am no expert on..... well, anything really, but I will tell you this
FOR FREE:
The secret to Happiness:
Work reeeeeeally hard at obtaining happiness, read sooooo many books on being happy, take yourself sooooo seriously that eventually you laugh.
When you get to the point at laughing at how ridiculous the Great Search for Happiness is, a cork will pop out of your ass and you stop believing the B.S. about how un-happy you are and how empty your life is and how you don't have enough money, time or possessions, and Ta-Daaaaa. You're Happy.

My advice for when you FORGET to be happy: go somewhere you can hear the birds singing, pour yourself a splendid glass of wine and count your blessings.
But please, PLEASE don't propel these potion-selling A-holes to the top of the NY times best-sellers list.
They should all take A LOT of duvet days and leave us all alone.