Ramblings from the paper scraps and on truth and happiness

Billy Jean King called herself an “adaptive perfectionist”.

“I’d much rather be happy than right any day.” –The Hitchikers’ Guide to the Galaxy
How did I miss this book? (I’ll tell you how, my mother doesn’t like it. She expresses her very strong opinions so that if I had wanted to read that book, I would have had to hide it from her.
I have 2 brief asides to this observation.
1) My mother has this issue with purple, the color. I love it, but whenever I have had anything purple in my house or on my person, she’s mentioned it in a disapproving way, and then repeated brought up the incident. "Remember that time you wore that bright purple sweater," she laughs disdainfully. Recently, I asked her: “what does purple represent that you dislike so much? No color merits scorn without a reason?” She didn’t really have an answer, but she hasn’t brought it up again since then.
2) I read “The Lovely Bones” a while back, and wrote a review of it here. It was my copy, and I used a black pen to underline my favorite lines. Now I use pencil, but that’s not the point. When I was finished, I gave the copy to my mother knowing that she would enjoy reading it. She forgot her copy had come from me and told me later that she thought some kind of idiot had underlined in her copy.)
Anyway, I watched the movie the other night and completely loved it. I own 2 movies now, and I’m not growing a collection, but I next time I see this DVD for sale, I will definitely buy it. I’m also planning to read the book when I finish The End of Mr. Y.

Listening to my podcasts recently, I learn about the recent trend for mayors to take over the government of schools from school boards. I also believe that the decisions of RIDES’ (my former NPO employer) board led to its demise. Tracey has mentioned that the NPO board-government structure dilutes the effectiveness of advocacy organizations. It’s certainly true that one strong leader will always be more effective than a committee – I don’t think that’s a radical thing to say. I wonder what this trend means about our changing society: will schools become stronger led by mayors? Will they become a political force as their leaders have access to their mayor’s ear? Will group government fade out in other organizations? Will that ultimately increase their effectiveness as I suspect?

I remembered my second yoga paraphrase from last week: “Don’t believe everything you think. People who believe everything they think are crazy. People who believe some of what they think, which is most of us, are neurotic.” I subscribe to a lot of Post Modern thought, and I generally believe that there is no truth, that everything is subjective. I just don’t always remember that in the heat of a theory:
1. Demand for transportation is inelastic.
2. Ex-boyfriend X wasn’t special enough.
3. Never pay retail.
(for example). I like the metaphor of truth being like water: as it flows, it generally, but not absolutely, holds one shape while the water molecules change. Similarly, I’ve learned that it’s easier to find happiness if I don’t get too attached to what it’s going to look like.