Happy

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Villa Nelcotte, Southern France 1971

"Well I never kept a dollar past sunset,
It always burned a hole in my pants.
Never made a school mama happy,
Never blew the second chance, oh no, I need a love to keep me happy." 

Would you be happy if you were far away from the comforts of home? Exiled to another country, for tax reasons?  Learning to be a parent? Dealing with budding addictions?  Feeling the pressure to produce and collaborate?  You may, or you may not, according to research by those who know best. 

But I digress...

Keith Richards wrote and recorded the song "Happy" from his basement in southern France, where, along with the rest of the Rolling Stones, he was exiled from his native England during the summer of 1971.*  Appropriately, this is where much of Exile on Main Street was written and recorded. 

According to New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff, the album is "a wise horror show, an audio diary of rock stars finally facing the rigors of marriage, children and addiction."

The song "Happy" features the open, five-string tuning Richards invented.  You hear it in "Honky Tonk Women," assuredly in the opening riffs of "Satisfaction," "Jumping Jack Flash," and many others.  You hear it in all manner of music today, influenced by Richards and the Stones. 

The song was written in four hours while Richards waited for his mates to arrive for their recording sessions.  According to Richards in his book, Life, "I'd have been happier if more came like 'Happy.'"

Maybe.  Or Maybe not.

Listening to the Rolling Stones makes me happy these days.  It gets me thinking about happiness.  And sadness.  And how utterly useless these terms are.

What you think you know about happiness and sadness, and how you think life events will make you feel, is wrong.  This is the belief held and proven by Harvard Psychology Professor Daniel Gilbert.

Just as Richards stumbled upon the song Happy, Gilbert came upon studying happiness by happenstance.  Gilbert wanted to be a science fiction writer.  When a creative writing class was full, he enrolled in a psychology class.  He is now a renowned social psychologist.  

His work has led to him quantify that our ability to predict what will make us happy or sad is often incorrect.  Not just as it relates to eating a cheeseburger, buying a car or television, but even with bigger life events surrounding job losses, death, and having children, to name a few. 

I've yet to read Gilbert's book, Stumbling on Happiness, but an excellent overview of his work is available here.  It is a little dry, but worth reading if you've ever thought having a pool in your backyard would make you happy, only to seldom dip your toes in the water once it became reality.   


*Charlie Watts was living 130 miles away, above the Aix-en-Provence.  Mick Jagger spent much of his time in Paris.  Mick Taylor was the other guitarist at the time.  Ronnie Wood joined in 1976.

We're Never Gonna Survive...

A (somewhat) open letter to Teabaggers and their ilk (and those that don't tell them they are losing their collective minds):



The American Revolution was a violent and bloody period in our nation's history.  Overwhelmingly electing a Democrat to the office of President does not warrant same.

It is a fact that GWB lost the popular vote in 2000.  Lost it.  A Republican Supreme Court gave him the presidency.  No one starting talking of 'watering the tree of liberty' then, and no one should be doing so today.   

However, the opposite is happening:

• Sarah Palin tweets "Don't retreat. Reload!" She puts cross hairs on congressional districts such as Rep. Garbrielle Giffords.  

• Senate candidate Sharon Angle called for violence if "this Congress keeps going the way it is."

• When not crying on television, Glenn Beck often predicts End of Days violence if liberalism is not defeated. 

• Rep. Michelle Bachman has publicly called for a revolutionary war against the "tyranny of Obama."

These are just a few.  There are countless examples of elected officials, television personalities, and other members of the 'establishment' stoking the flames.  

They continue to do these things even as death threats for members of Congress are skyrocketing.  They pile on even as Gabrielle Giffords office is shot at after voting for the health care bill.  They pour gasoline on the fire even as teabaggers shout the N word at Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a civil-rights icon nearly beaten to death at a civil rights rally in the 1960s, for his support of the health care bill.

Look at the footage from McCain-Palin rallies as it became clear they were not going to win the presidency.  Their supporters were blinded with rage, yelling of Obama 'treason', 'off with his head', and 'terrorist.'  There were other insults, but it got kind of mean. 

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who was at the scene of this weekend's shooting, has best summarized what is happening in today's discourse:

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous.  And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

And it is no surprise that Fox News, fearing that the jig is up on its bearded-woman-at-the carnival-sideshow excuse for news programming, has begun to attack Dupnik for his candid observations, the ones that come from protecting and serving his community for 31 years.

Perhaps Fox News will spare Congresswoman Gifford's brother in law, Scott, who happens to be the commanding officer aboard the International Space Station.  He spoke from outerspace over radio today.  Flight controllers in Houston remained silent:
 

"As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful.  Unfortunately, it is not.  These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words.  We're better than this.  We must do better."

Say what you will about free speech.  But it isn't free. 

In 2009 the Department of Homeland Security warned that right-wing extremism was escalating, with the potential for violence.  The accuracy of that report is chilling.

When reasonable people begin carrying signs with our president depicted as Hitler, as a socialist...when they insinuate that he was not born here, is not a Christian, send you emails hinting toward violence even...when these things go unchallenged on main street and on the airwaves, there's a crescendo and eventually a crazy person hears it, several times, giving validity to it, and acting on it. 

And that not only leads to violence that killed a federal judge, critically injured a member of Congress, killed 5 others and wounded 14, it leads to good and decent people no longer wanting to serve their country for fear of what happened over the weekend happening to them. 


And we're never gonna survive, if we let the crazies fill that leadership void.