My great grandma use to buy the national enquire and strange reading material like that. When you were reading these perceived treasures, she would leave you alone. I often read these marvels when she got onry since she would leave me alone. One day in about 1986 or 87 while I was still in law school, I read a quote of the week in one of these trash magazines that is worth more than gold.

Movie stars were asked what their definition of success was. Warren Beatty’s answer struck a cord and I have quoted it a hundred times since: “Success is when you can’t tell if you’re workin’ or you’re playin’.”

Exactly right! We have to pick work we enjoy, exercise we enjoy, health food we enjoy, people we enjoy spending time with. To quote me in my best quote ever “Happiness cannot be overrated.”

Thanks for the articles. I like to read about being happy and about being healthy. We all seek what we think makes us happier even as our feelings are always in the present moment and contentment and satisfaction are right here if we want them or in the next moment when we get through whatever we are focused on that is harsh at the moment.

I see things written about the real purpose of life is to find meaning to the exclusion of happiness. Oh my gosh- are people not finding meaning in their lives? in their work? in their families? Time to focus on what makes you happy to find that meaning. I have meaning from what I have chosen that makes me happy- suing polluters and now writing about issues of justice and injustice. The work is real work and it is filled with frustration and assholes yet I find the joy in the work in my attitude and in accomplishing the goals of each case. Even in the face of injustice- harsh injustice- I still find happiness all the time- a bird on the wire, a deer in a field, the sun shining, a song on the radio, children laughing, calling a friend, the dog greeting me when I return home.

Thanks for pegging the simplicity of this issue. We chose happy. I am singing along with you because I’m happy, happy, happy, and I know that happiness is the truth. Again- thanks for writing. Now I get to prep for a trial that takes place tomorrow. Wishing it was over- does not get it over. Joy in exposing wrong and taking down a big unreasonable jerk- that I can do.