I’ve recently stumbled across some great writing that is essential reading:

• How to Do What You Love by Paul Graham.
  “A parent who set an example of loving their work might help their kids more than an expensive house.”

• Ten Things I Have Learned by Milton Glaser.
  “There is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

I’m going to start posting links to this kind of stuff here.

This sums up my problems with today’s conservatives in such a succinct way:

What’s happening, presumably, is that modern movement conservatism attracts a certain personality type. If you identify with the downtrodden, even a little, you don’t belong. If you think ridicule is an appropriate response to other peoples’ woes, you fit right in.

And Republican disillusionment with Mr. Bush does not appear to signal any change in that regard. On the contrary, the leading candidates for the Republican nomination have gone out of their way to condemn “socialism,” which is G.O.P.-speak for any attempt to help the less fortunate.

Here’s a link to the whole article:
Conservatives Are Such Jokers, by Paul Krugman. NY Times, October 5, 2007

I’m conservative by nature. And yet I do think it’s our business to help others. You might say it’s our obligation to do so as God’s children. You can even find imperatives to help others right in the Bible, the book by which many conservatives supposedly turn to for guidance — that is, when they’re not too busy laughing at the weakest among us.

At the airport bookstore, there are only about a dozen freestanding shelves of books. It’s Darwinian selection at its most brutal: only the most popular authors, the newest novels, and the most recognizable classics survive. You won’t find the lesser known works of Oscar Wilde or Voltaire or even Hemingway — there isn’t space for them. Jane Austen makes only the briefest appearance, and Edgar Allen Poe shows his face only at Halloween. There are no collections of poetry beyond Dr. Seuss.

There is, however, a whole rack of self help books.

Americans are obsessed with making ourselves better. Smarter. Thinner. You can buy books to improve your vocabulary. You can devour a stack of books that will teach you to work more efficiently, more ruthlessly, and claw your way to the top — and then you can read books on how to stop and smell the roses and enjoy your life more fully. There are even books that will teach you how to organize your closets.

All of these things dance around the essential truth: we want to be happy. We want to be loved. We want to find meaning in our lives and feel that our contributions make a difference.

This, then, is the Rusty Brain Guide: How To Be Happy.

1. Eat more cookies. Abstaining from a single cookie isn’t going to make you look svelte and toned. Go on, eat some cookies. I recommend the double chocolate ones with chocolate chips inside.
2. Sing. In your car. In elevators. At the mall, especially at Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn. In hospital corridors. Before important client meetings. When people give you that patronizing look, wink at ‘em.
3. Make Popsicles.
4. Stay home on the weekend and disconnect your phone.
5. Bring a plastic straw to a fancy restaurant. Make loud gurgling sounds when you get to the bottom as you attempt to drink every last molecule of diet Coke.
6. Order the stuff on the menu that you’ve never heard of — like Gkaeng Cheud Bplah Meuk Yad Sai (Stuffed Squid Soup with Napa Cabbage or Squash).
7. Talk to strangers.
8. Collect something weird that isn’t expensive but is relatively hard-to-find.
9. Wear odd hats in public places.
10. Amass a jar of coins. Bury them in your back yard. Draw a treasure map and give it to a friend.
11. Walk to the park near your house. Do some somersaults. When was the last time you did a somersault, anyway?
12. Eat pickles out of the jar.
13. Build a Web site and write your own Rusty Brain column (Matt only).
14. Spend a day by yourself. Leave your cell phone at home. Wander the streets, muttering to yourself and occasionally disagreeing with what you’ve just muttered.
15. Buy a puppy. Name it Charo.
16. Get your teeth capped. Move to Hollywood. Become a star. (Isn’t that what you’ve been dreaming about anyway?)
17. Wear thong panties under your habit (nuns only).
18. Throw a surprise birthday party for a friend. Invite lots of people. Make sure that your friend’s actual birthday is nowhere near the date of the party.
19. Belch in public. Then sigh contently.
20. Suntan naked on a public beach. Adopt a European accent for the day to explain your complete lack of modesty.
21. Quit your worthless job and dedicate your life to the study of the Moroccan flute.
22. Fly a kite. Go.
23. Stop wasting your life with the Moroccan flute and get a real job.
24. Volunteer at your library, or church, or your local soup kitchen, or Habitat for Humanity. Wear clothes so ratty that you are often mistaken for one of the “needy.”
25. Use the word “Jonesing” as often as possible. As in, “Man, I’m Jonesin’ for some homemade Popsicles.” Studies have shown this will make you happy.
26. Join a bowling league. Buy a large red bowling ball. Name it “Gorbachev.”
27. Drive to the nearest national forest. Hike a mile with a backpack full of cold fried chicken and biscuits. Find a clearing where you will not meet a single human and have a picnic.
28. Stare at the clouds for a full afternoon and dream.
29. Think about the things you love to do. Now go do those things more often.
30. Meet someone, fall in love, live happily ever after.

Our motto: Happiness is just another word for unsadness.