On not being happy all the time

[nancylebov]

rivka recommends this essay about the cruelty of the assumption that people should be able to be steady-minded in the face of anything that happens and enjoy every aspect of what they need to do and/or that everything that happens is mystically chosen by the people involved.

On the smaller scale, I just heard Bobby McFerrin on the BBC (I haven't found the link). Now, I have a tremendous respect for him, but I also have a reflexive dislike of being told what to feel. It was a long siege when "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was popular, and I didn't think it was musically very interesting, either.

The interviewer asked McFerrin whether, considering that he'd done so much ambitious and experimental music, it was annoying that "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was the most popular thing he'd ever done. McFerrin said that it was annoying (this isn't an exact quote-- even if I could find the link, I couldn't play it in the US)-- it took him a long time to get used to it, but a lot of people have told him how much the song meant to them. By implication, he's reconciled to it.