Canned happiness

Mizuki and I had an assignment in Niigata for some sneak previews of some street-wear designs that will hit one of the shows here in Tokyo next month. This isn't so much a show as much as it is browsing through endless rails of new ideas. Short on models and short on displays, it never fails to impress those looking for new lines to incorporate and new names to sign up.
On the way there it's a two hour discussion between us that is about ten minutes of our strategy planning and one hundred and ten minutes on all the latest gossip from private lives, overheard snippets of conversation and the latest blooms from the grapevine.
A clear head is essential!
On the way back we have ten minutes formulating an initial presentation and one hundred and ten minutes replacing lost bodily fluids!
My life seems to pass by on trains and also indulging in a little drink or two!

Mizuki was quite a laugh and certainly not used to drinking so much because she started to flirt with me quite openly but in a playful way. She knows my orientation and I know she has a serious boyfriend and we work together so there is no way I'd allow such an innocent fun thing to get out of hand and become something serious. I did like it though!
If you seriously want to understand flirting, click here.
Once back home I made sure she was in her apartment safe before I left her. These young girls!

It's a contentedness that has us relaxing and reclining with that feeling that all is well in the world. Of course not everything is well but for our moment and our place we can fool ourselves that it is! Our pleasures and our achievements and having the respect of people whose respect is worth having can make it feel so. In our slightly inebriated conversation we decided that this is one of the key points. We add value to life by making good choices and you can't do that unless you are well informed and you have a reflective nature. The same conversation appeared later with my dear friend Ania when we too decided that we must read, enquire, debate and consider. In her blog, Ania also mentioned about her happiness being complete only when those around her are also happy. I must fully concur with what she says. I think that we cannot really be happy when those around us are not because our natural sympathies make their happiness a part of our own. We are basically social creatures and apart from a few weird people in our society, like sadists, a good life for any one of us has to connect to being a part of a community effort of trying to create a good society around us, one where we may all have the chance of flourishing and prospering.
Think of those who live under threat of guns and bombs. What kind of happiness can you imagine for them?
How lucky are we then to live in relatively safe societies where we have our theaters and schools and gyms and hospitals and full shops. We have our safe homes and our bellies are full.
Close your eyes for a moment and try to feel that difference with your imagination if you have no experiences to draw upon.

What is it that makes you happy?
I ask anyone who feels like commenting this question.
First you may realize how hard that question may be to actually put into words and then you may feel a little reluctant to say exactly what it is, even if ninety percent of the readers would silently agree with you.

According to my friend Riko, who works in our advertising department, happiness is easy to find amongst "thin people who care for themselves and have the ability to buy things."
According to an Islamic friend of mine, happiness is accepting that life is pain and suffering but by obeying God's law, true happiness follows in the paradise after death.

I'm all for acceptance but I want my happiness on this side of the final curtain.
One thing that makes me happy and it might make you happy too, is to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Would you like to try it? How about making a small monetary sum to your favorite charity or "Save the children", which is my favorite charity and see how good that makes you feel. Don't just think it, do it!
You will feel good.