Some people  tell me they are afraid of death.

Some tell me they are afraid of getting old.

Afraid of becoming a burden, or of being decrepit and in pain.

Some are afraid of things left undone, and destinations unknown.

Some people, not me.

I’m happy I’m dying.

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x

A new study has revealed that people who indulge in deep and meaningful conversations are more likely to be happier than those who engage in small talk and chit-chat (like what was on TV last night and who’s going to win X-factor, and what about Katie Price’s latest outburst… etc). Purposeful talks can make people cheerful apparently (go figure).

Researchers from the University of Arizona researched some of the differences between people who are happy and those who are unhappy. It was established that people feel happier when they indulged more in meaningful conversations than in insignificant ones (ah – finally science [albeit very soft science] has supported what I always knew). Matthias Mehl, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, said, “Profound conversations have the potential to make people [profoundly] happier” (I added the ‘profoundly’ – just seemed to read better).

In the study, 79 women and men had been requested to carry inconspicuous recording devices for four days to observe the conversations they had with the other persons. According to the study, cheerful people don’t spend their time alone. Happiest persons spent 70% time discussing, in comparison to those who were not happy. Women were more likely to share their feelings than men.

The study found that happiness does not necessarily come from meeting people, but comes from indulging in meaningful and important conversations with people.

Well there you go. Not just D&M but H as well!!

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x

‘I’m at a loss to explain my actions. I have always had an aversion to facing the music. What a ridiculous saying anyway, it never made sense to me’.

There was no doubt in my mind that I was dealing with a sociopath. I recognised his behaviour, he was a lot like myself. But I liked to think I had come to fit in. I had learnt to read the signs, speak the language. A good trick was simply repeating the last words or phrase as a question, like this.

“Never made sense?’ I placed the emphasis on ‘never’. I wasn’t sure what I was doing other than I’d rather have him talking than me, and I had some unease with any silences.

‘Never. I remember as a child my mum caning me for this or that, yelling at me that I was incorrigible, a hopeless case. It wasn’t so much that I broke this or that, or this rule, and there were quite a few of those. She was a stickler for rules, all different sorts for all different situations. It was like living in a board game, spending half my time waiting for my move. And anyway ‘I didn’t want to play. What was the point? What is the point?’

He looked at me, obviously expecting an answer. One that would inevitably be unsatisfactory, therefore only proving even more pointedly that there was no point. The pause though was starting to become a silence, I had to say something.

‘How about you don’t bother explaining anything. How about you just tell me what you did? Just for the hell of it. Just so I know. No point. No purpose. Just tell me’

He looked like he was considering it.

I’m drinking red wine in the middle of the day, and feeling melancholy. Gonna miss my baby. Gonna miss my girl. What does it mean when you leave the one you love? Drinking red wine and feeling free. Feeling like a cowboy at a Red Beach rodeo.

Will I ever leave myself behind? Will I ever be more than an outcast? Like one of Kelly’s heroes I’ve been burning bridges since I was strong enough to walk. People tell me, always tell me, I can be more than I am. Not you. You never did. You just told me straight, I could be all that I was.

There is something here, in this memory, hidden in the bottom of this glass. Something that beckons me, even though I know it does not last. Its a craziness, a wanton desire that beckons me to the intersection. Maybe this time I’ll be reborn, maybe I’ll just relax and await the resurrection.

Maybe this time I will find the way home. I think so.

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x

Life’s about circles. We do not go back, or forward – we simply go round…

and what comes around, goes around.

x bhavatu sabbe mangalum x