Simple pleasures

Today was doing some much-needed housework and "Woman's Hour" was on the radio. There was a battle between the part of me that wanted to replace the radio noise with some music on my iPod...and the other half of me that was rushing to get the work done and couldn't be bother to go and find the iPod.

The latter "me" won. So I stayed listening as I did the washing up.

They were talking about happiness, pleasure and contentment.

The usual platitudes about "money doesn't bring happiness" were touted and I'm firmly of the belief that this is true...up to a point. Money can bring you choices and remove some basic worries and that can help with the whole happiness thing.

Since switching to part time hours (for my own, selfish, reasons - I hasten to add) I have to think more carefully about how I use my income. It certainly hasn't made me any less happy that I can't just go and buy more-or-less anything I want without worrying about the cost.

The times I have been most happy in the last couple of years were times like yesterday - four of us spent no more than £20 (in total) sat in the sun drinking coffee and catching up on the Downs, then going to the Botanic Gardens for a few hours, and taking photographs.

And times like today (post housework) sitting on the back doorstep with a bacon butty in one hand and coffee in the other, putting the world to rights with a friend.

A lot of these latter conversations were a about bad things going on in the world and how it made us variously mad and depressed.

This links back to the Woman's Hour article - when one speaker said "I don't think that humans are on the planet to be happy and content because it's being discontented that gets the bad things changed"

I don't think either my friend or I are going to change the injustices that we got so exercised about today...but I'm inclined to agree that a little discontentment is probably good to stop complacency setting.

On a lighter note, we also surmised what would happen if an alien came and visited and looked at us all typing on QWERTY keyboards, given the dilberate inefficiencies built into the layout.

Such conversations can't be predicted or contrived, in my experience, but gave us both cause to laugh....and that's worth more than money, any day.


.