THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE David Byrne Broke the Proust Questionnaire The Talking Heads’ award-winning front man has made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With his musical, Here Lies Love, embarking on a global tour this year, he waxes poetic on the randomness of happiness. . What is your idea of perfect happiness? Wow, these are big questions! Happiness, as I’ve experienced it and observed it in others, seems to be random—some of us are happy fairly regularly (I am, mostly), and some of us not as much—but there seems to be no clear explanation as to why. It comes and goes at unexpected moments, too. The graph of happiness doesn’t even seem to match what is going on in our lives. Or maybe it does and we don’t know it. Money—is there a connection between money and happiness? It takes away a world of worries and anxieties, but are rich folks all happy? Are you kidding? Donald Trump is ALWAYS scowling. That said, it’s hard to be happy if you don’t know where you’ll sleep or where your next meal is coming from. The pursuit of happiness? Where are we supposed to look? Are there clues hidden somewhere? The very act of searching and striving for it can lead to frustration and unhappiness. I suspect that happiness finds you—I’m not sure you can find a road that leads to it. Happiness is everywhere, though some cultures are, I’ve read, happier overall than others—G.N.P. be damned. Is sunshine one of those things? Are tropical folks generally happier? They would, if you don’t believe in heavenly rewards, be then deemed the winners in the meaning-of-life sweepstakes. Those cultures, along with some of our animal friends. Dogs, birds, otters, seals, and dolphins have moments of pure happiness—it’s not a feeling unique to human beings. My hunch is that it’s an evolved survival mechanism that lots of species share—we have evolved to have regular sporadic moments of happiness. They keep us from totally sinking into contemplating our life stories, which ultimately always have a bad ending. In an evolutionary sense, some of those joyous moments might be clues to things that help us survive. Happiness emerges sometimes when we’re around family and friends—if it’s a comfortable and supportive situation. When we’ve had a good meal. Completed a task or had an inspiration.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 09:22:49 +0000