How to have a better life

1.  Find things more enjoyable.  Act as if under a dopamine-response loop.  Convince yourself that you are enjoying whatever it is you're doing.  Become more accepting of the situation you find yourself in.  Don't try to dance.  Don't resist dancing.  Do what is happening, and enjoy it as it comes.

2. Don't sweat other people's judgment.  You can analyze it and integrate it later.  Let it roll off you emotionally.  Deal with the *now* aspects of criticism and save the rest for quiet nightly contemplation.  Don't hold on to it!

3.  Take wholehearted chances.  Don't just make a salad; make the whole meal with place-mats and dinner music.  Don't learn a new hobby; find a second profession.  Bet the farm.  Marry the girl.  Go overboard in your passions and the ones you want to have.  Behave passionately and you will become passionate.

4. Plan more.  Don't just jump off the cliff!  Wear a parachute and train the jumps.  Learn how to pack your chute.  Know all the steps before you jump, but commit to the jump.

5.  Ok, but be spontaneous.  With 1, you must roll with the current situation; nothing goes perfectly according to plan.  Be adaptable, flexible, and tolerant.  (Patience!)

Happiness revelation

Driving to work, I thought about being in others' heads, about the models that we ascribe to their thought processes.  We are in control of those models, and we can choose whether to give people the benefit of the doubt and assuming they have good reasons for their behaviors, or to blame them for being deficient or malicious.  In the same regard, we are responsible for our own happiness: it is in how we view the world.  It was at about this point in my commute that I noticed the sun come out.  "I made the sun come out," I thought to myself.  The beauty in the world is mine to see and enjoy.  This brought tears to my eyes.  I stayed with this emotion and breathed it in, letting out raspy breaths.  It occurred to me that I'd stumbled on something profound, the secret to happiness, and I'd had it all along.  I also reveled in my calm detachment from my own feelings.  I wasn't trying to cry; I wasn't trying not to cry.  I was fully in an honest, powerful emotion.  That realization further inspired my happiness and the flow of my tears.  I smiled a great big smile the rest of the way to work and dried my tears before I left the car.

I thought about my future.  I thought about Jenny.  I thought about work and housing.  All looked good.

I think the moment I realized that my happiness was completely in my control may have been the happiest moment in my life to date.

Nietzsche is dead

Not only did Man create God, but more accurately, *every* person with a belief in God creates a (unique) God. Sure, many beliefs surrounding deities are passed down through books and oral tradition, but I still maintain that what God is varies with what the individual thinks "good" is. For example, somebody morally opposed to homosexuality thinks God is, too.

My own God has had a rough birth. He was dead through most of my life, and only recently have I decided to let him live. For me, "God" language forms an idealized abstraction of the world. It is the language I use to express my best intentions, to admit my failures, to grab onto when I need something to hold onto. When I talk to God, I am talking to the idealized version of me and the idealized version of my universe.

I'm not sure how common my thinking is. Some people think of God as a real part of the universe, not as an abstraction. Some people probably share much of my thinking but haven't (yet) codified it as such. For some people, God is dead.

I wish there were better language for these thoughts, as I think the word "God" has to fill many rolls for many people. To discuss a topic, it is generally a good idea to have clear, agreed-upon language as a start. I propose the addition of new words to help this along. We need a words for a physical god: a god that has an existence in our physical universe and can manipulate the world at will. We need a word for self-god, the god which is our own best self. And we need a word for universe-god, the god that represents the good in the universe. And we probably need other words that I haven't yet connected to... perhaps because I lack the language.