Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 July 2007 13:51:45
I found a path to happiness.
Having done a fair bit of walking in the countryside in Britain, and some (but not enough) in Switzerland, I know that the word path can mean different things. A path can have very obtrusive signs guiding you along it, and a path can have very discrete signs. Those signs can do a good job of keeping you on the recommended path, or they can do a good job of helping you lose it and yourself completely. Naively you might think that discrete signs on a path will make that path harder to follow. But a few summers ago I learnt that the opposite is true. I spent a week walking in the alps, following some very discrete waymarkers which, nevertheless, marked the path perfectly and prevented any navigational difficulties. Straight afterwards I spent a few days walking in Britain, following an official long-distance footpath. This had very big, ugly and obtrusive signs but they failed to give very much useful guidance at all.
The path I'm talking about is firmly in the British mould, so I don't have much confidence in arriving at my destination, but hey, this is one thing where I always thought the Americans had it right - you can pursue happiness, but don't expect to actually achieve it.
A persistent, if sometimes implicit, thread to this blog has been that I don't know what's good for me; I don't know what I enjoy. Frequently I've felt that what I really needed was just a bit of time doing something nice, and I've usually spent that time frustratedly trying and failing to think of what that would be. But the photo I posted about last time finally gave me the clue. When I look at that photo I am transported back to a very pleasant and happy day. And by looking through a few more of my photos I can find some other happy times that I've enjoyed. Which is one way of discovering some things that I have, at least in the past, enjoyed. Now, of course, not everything can be captured in photos (at least not if you have to get them developed in a public photo shop), and what I enjoyed in the past is only an imperfect guide to what I might now enjoy. But it's a start, and that's better than I had before.