The Happiness Project

[gnimmel]

I'm interested in happiness.
I mean, everyone is, I guess[1]. But I've been reading discussions like this, and this, and this. And I was thinking about the cheese and pickled onion sandwich.

The thing about the cheese and pickled onion sandwich is this: provided it is the right cheese and pickled onion sandwich (that is to say one with crispy

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drunken moonlight on the Verde

[caprine]

I was fifteen, on a spring break trip with a bunch of students from my private high school, led by one of the art teachers. We went to Arizona and camped out in the most beautiful places he could find. We spend a few days camped on the beach of the Verde River, across from the hot springs. Crossing the river to the springs involved very cold water, sharp rocks underfoot, and fast currents; the springs were worth it, though. After crossing the river you had to hike up an incline to a cliff where the hottest pool was inside a concrete shelter with psychedelic paintings all over the inside and the slightly less hot pool was outside, lined with rough rocks. The rowdy boys with my group would soak in the outside pool until they were sweating, then jump off the cliff into the cold river, swim to the base of the incline, and come back to repeat the cycle. I didn't partake of that sport myself but it was amusing to watch.

One night, when the rest of my group was exhausted from horseplay on the river and didn't want to face the sharp rocks and fast current to get to the springs, some nearby campers offered me a ride across on their rubber raft, and a share of their bottle of Southern Comfort. Without my classmates and teacher as witnesses, I felt comfortable stripping naked for the spring as the people around me were doing. We soaked and drank in the moonlight until a few hours before dawn, then they gave me a ride on their raft back to the beach. I staggered up the beach feeling ecstatic. Every stone in the moonlight, every weed, every tree, sang to me in shades of light. I was happier then than I had ever been before and happier than I have ever been since.

Years later I realized that Very Bad Things could have happened to me that night. I am grateful that they didn't, grateful that those generous people weren't predators -- I would encounter some of those when I was a little older.

I was lucky. That night was a gift.