It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
- Oriah Mountain Dreamer
There are many types of Glen. There's Tai Chi Glen, tea making Glen, gardening glen but music Glen is definitely the best glen. And then there are also many types of music Glen; drummer Glen, piano Glen, singing Glen. There are just too many types of Glen but all are great.
Leica M6, Acros 100
A little bit of satire, a whole lot of truth.
Fuji Colour ISO 100, Contax G1 & Leica M6
And if we do obtain something that makes us truly happy- a relationship, a dream home, a career triumph- the happiness quickly fades, thanks to the mechanism known as the 'hedonic treadmill'. We adjust to new circumstances so well that new sources of pleasure soon become part of the unnoticed backdrop of our lives. From an evolutionary standpoint, at least, it makes perfect sense that we're permanently dissatisfied. A creature who could obtain long-term psychological satisfaction from a single hearty meal, or a single episode of sex, wouldn't fare well at spreading genes.
But the most frustration complication with happiness, surely, is the self-defeating truth that focusing on achieving it makes it harder, perhaps even impossible, to obtain. "Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so," wrote John Stuart Mill, and researchers have since demonstrated that people who value happiness are in fact less likely to experience it. True happiness arrives unpredictably- and its usually only after the event that you realise it paid a visit.
Oliver Burkeman
Olympus Mjuii, Kodak 400
Contax, Misc films + Practika, Adox Silvermax 400
