Read This Before You
Put on Your 'Happy Face'
Eric Wilson has written a book, Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, in which he takes exception to the "American cult of happiness, a cult that medicalizes even the mildest forms of jangled nerves and malaise." Argues Mr. Wilson,
"I for one am afraid that our American culture's overemphasis on happiness at the expense of sadness might be dangerous, a wanton forgetting of an essential part of a full life. I further am wary in the face of this possibility: to desire only happiness in a world undoubtedly tragic is to become inauthentic, to settle for unrealistic abstractions that ignore concrete situations. I am finally fearful over our society's efforts to expunge melancholia from the system. Without the agitations of the soul, would all of our magnificent yearning towers topple? Would our heart-torn symphonies cease?"
So, don't put on that happy face if you don't feel like it.
Be real!
Something to think about... |
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And again from Eric Wilson,
"Happy types around the country seem bent on ironing out all the rough edges, not only the cragged corners of old houses and those weather-weary knots on old oaks...The same is true of faces these days; they're as unblemished as flat plastic...You catch these smooth and expressionless faces when you walk down a city street. You can find not a trace of existence in these frozen masks."
Eric Wilson, Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy |
