Are you happy now?

What is happiness to a middle-aged person? Does it still feel like a realistic goal? Or have we lived through too much to aspire to anything more than contentment? Or satisfaction? In midlife, the pursuit of happiness can feel a bit like rubbing two sticks together to start a fire in the snow. The process can feel urgent and/or futile, but when you do manage to find that spark, your first thought is to remember how you got it and do whatever you can to keep it going. Among our consultations, the central ingredient of feeling happy is empathy for and connection with our fellow people. Magda basked in nostalgia in Stockbridge, Mass. Doug found cordial political debates in Livingston County, Michigan. We both consulted Logan Ury’s strategies in How Not to Die Alone. And we debated the merits of Facebook’s artificial interaction. Thanks for listening to When the Flames Go Up! We’re a listener-supported enterprise, so please consider a paid subscription to support our writing and podcasting. We’ve all heard that happiness is a choice that requires effort sometimes. At least we’ve been around long enough to know ourselves pretty well, so we can decide what makes us happy and feel reasonably certain we can do what’s necessary to find it. Other links: * The DuPont family really did cover Montpelier in pink stucco * Mr. Darcy confesses his ardent admiration for Elizabeth Bennet * The Menopause Brain, by Lisa Mosconi * The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama * Cambridge Analytica sold private data of millions of Facebook users * Ivana’s last resting place is a mess * Simon Rich talks about why he’ll never use Facebook * Matteo Lane on the Working It Out podcast * The MAD Magazine exhibit at the Normal Rockwell Museum * Enjoy the JOMO! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whentheflamesgoup.substack.com