Happiness is a warm, yes it is...

No, there is not a word missing in the title. Go listen to the White Album.

So, I just read a pretty basic advice colume on Slate.com - Dear Prudence (again with the White Album!). I dug her advice to a sad, self-loathing but otherwise normal person. Well, actually... I didn't think it was all that great, but the book she reference, the Happiness Hypothesis, well, I checked that out and thought it looked good.

For reason, this caused my brain to flash a big neon sign inside my head that said: HAPPINESS!!! Which lead me down the path to my whatever and ever, amen, type of thoughts on love, life, liberty and said pursuit of said wonderful thing, happiness.

This, in turn, made me think about my social life. Made me recall, and want to relate, that I have a date tonight. Including the gut feeling that said date tonight will not happen, because I haven't heard back from an email I sent yesterday to confirm said date.

Which lead me back to last night, thinking about the Firefly pilot episode, where Book and Inara discuss the captain, Mal. I'm going to paraphrase, but the scene I'm refering to went kind of like this:

Inara: Why are you so interested in the captain?
Book: Because he remains suchs a mystery. Why are you?
Inara: Because so few men are.

I don't know why, but the essence of that conversation really struck deep at my heart, yesterday, and at why I feel so lacking in the relationship department. I want to be mysterious, and want someone to find me that way, and, likewise, want to find a girl who is mysterious and who intrigues me.

If Shakespear said "know thyself," a quote I put a lot of weight in, I wonder if that leads to happiness? And, likewise, wouldn't "know someone else," too? Maybe not. I am babbling here.

The point is, happiness is subjective, from the point of the person wishing to achieve happiness. I think we'd all list that when attempting to find a partner/spouse/mate/friend.

To achieve that with someone else proves to be quite the chore, however. And no book is going to ever fix the communication problems between the sexes or between lovers/potential lovers. What may to me be a simple reminder and a way to finalize plans may seem to someone else as desparate, pushy, too interested, or some other strange way of contact.

It is in those moments when Richard Cheese is the, albeit short-term, answer to happiness.