Hmmm???

What is happiness, anyway?

Is it the giddy excitement, the rattling energy in your bones you feel when everything is going just right, and you have so much to look forward to?

Is it the heartbreaking feeling that beauty leaves in your chest when you sit and watch the sun going down, golden, past layer after increasingly-blue layer of rolling hills, and you hear the peeper frogs start to sing, and the air blows warm and soft through your hair?

Is it the quiet contentment when you're home on a rainy afternoon and you have uncommitted hours stretching out in front of you, and you can sit at the kitchen table with a steaming mug of tea, a good book, and a plate of freshly-baked chocolate cookies?

Is it the deep trust that things will come 'round right in your life, that the world will keep turning, that birth and death are all one and the same, and that even when you're by yourself, you're not alone?

Is it all these things, or none? Or perhaps just a fleeting, ineffable moment, impossible to capture, impossible to pin down?

It's always confused me when people have said that they are "happy"- I've never understood how that could be characterized as a constant state. Like sadness, it seems inevitably something that comes and goes.

05/06/08: New information received today - happiness is a Texas Hot. ;-)

"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating." (George W. Bush)

Heart o' Glass

In 1978, my friend Mary had a K-Tel LP called High Energy. The first song was Blondie's Heart of Glass, which is a kick-ass song.

I recently downloaded it from somewhere, and was listening to it in the car the other night, realizing that in the 30-some-odd years I've been listening to that song, I've never really understood the lyrics. Or really needed to understand the lyrics.

I'm going to write them down now as I've always heard and sung them, because after I write them, I'm going to google the lyrics and find out what they really are, and the song will never be the same after that.
So here they are as I hear them: (followed by the actual lyrics, per Osvaldo's request ;-))

Whatcha'a'love it is a gas,
Sir time now, that heart o' glass
Seemed like the real thing wanitablahhm,
Whachamistrust, losta behind.
----
[Once I had a love and it was a gas]
[Soon turned out had a heart of glass]
[Seemed like the real thing, only to find]
[Mucho mistrust, love's gone behind]


Whatcha'a'love, it is divine-
Sir found out what tis my mind
Seemed like the real thing, but I was so blind,
Whachamistrust, losta behind.
----
[Once I had a love and it was divine]
[Soon found out I was losing my mind]
[It seemed like the real thing but I was so blind]
[Mucho mistrust, love's gone behind]

In between, what I find is pleasing
And I'm feeling fine; love is so amusing
There's no peace of mind-
If I fear I'm losing you, it's just no good,
You're cheesing like a dead girl.
----
[In between]
[What I find is pleasing and I'm feeling fine]
[Love is so confusing there's no peace of mind]
[If I fear I'm losing you it's just no good]
[You teasing like you do]


Lost inside a terrible illusion
And I cannot hide; I'm the one you're using
Please don't push me a-
-using, yeah
[the LP had a skip there and wiped out the line]
----
[Lost inside]
[Adorable illusion and I cannot hide]
[I'm the one you're using, please don't push me aside]
[We could've made it cruising, yeah]

Oh aah you're riding high, on ahm into the blue sky-
Ooooo-oooh, whoa-ohhh
Ooooo-oooh, whoa-ohh
----
[Yeah, riding high on love's true bluish light]