A long way down

I just finished an excellent book, 'A Long Way Down' by Nick Hornby. Fabulous fabulous, with it's themes of depression and community, this book is a great portrait of one of the base human themes of modern society. Plus, it's darkly humorous and a rollicking good read. Secondary themes of bibliophilia touched me in personal ways, as I've been reading more voluminously, and enjoying it correspondingly more as well. I highly recommend it. It's intriguing, smart, easy, fun, and fundamental.

Existence is hard. We are very smart, and we know how to compare our situations to others. The other situations don't even have to be real, we can still compare. And therein lies the sorrow. Why isn't my life better, and more like something else? One tactic I've been using is seeing the little flowers that are hidden in the grass, the ones that are so small you don't really notice them unless you happen to be sitting or lying in the grass. You have to look really closely, but there is something beautiful there. Even sitting in line, or on a bus, or having a harsh day at work, when I get a second to stop and think, I can always find a little flower.

I thought this would just be a little trick in an arsenal of personal existence strategies, but it turns out to be very useful over all. You know how stress relief helps alleviate everything from allergies to insurance rates? The ripple effect from this observational paradigm shift has had a similar effect on my outlook.

Great books are nice too.