On the way home to take my vitamin after lunch today there was a discussion on Talk of the Nation that appeared, in my brief listen, to be about the relationship between economic success and happiness. Overall I find this to be something of a strange topic for discussion. Of course, I have the good fortune to view this from the position of having my basic needs well met. Perhaps I'm not the best person to talk about it.

As I was walking back in to work, afterwards, I found myself wondering about the nature of happiness. It's a hard thing for me to describe but an easy thing to recognize. I know, for instance, that when I'm sitting on the porch, reading a book in the sun, that I am often happy. I couldn't tell you though, precisely why I describe that particular experience as happy. It would take a whole complex of feeling adjectives to explain it.

I have often said that I think that if there is any purpose to life it's to seek to be happy and to help others do the same, and I stand by this. For some reason, though, this seems to sometimes shock people. It's as if they equate the quest for happiness with some kind of hedonism (ok, that's too strong, I know). Somehow that misses the point. I suppose there are some dedicated hedonists that truly are happy. I don't know. I'm talking about something my mother describes as "enlightened self-interest".

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In other news, I'm thinking about planting some kind of bambo along my fence line. I also plan to actually make good on my long-standing threats to grow vegetables this spring. On that note, can anyone recommend good books or websites on gardening?