If you're happy and you know it...

Welcome all! My name is Jesse, and this is my blog, tentatively titled Everybody Lies--which may or may not be a motivating factor for people to read.

I've never really "blogged" before, so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. It seems quite a peculiar activity--one sharing his thoughts with a faceless crowd, in hopes of people reading, relating to, and discussing the subjects at hand, yet still maintaining a certain blanket of unaccountability via anonymity. So whether I'm going to end up being good at this or not, I'm giving it a shot at the suggestion of some of my friends and (fellow) bloggers. So, here it goes...

If my title seems a bit odd, then perhaps you havn't seen, or at least don't share my captivation with, the show House on Fox. This brings me to my first subject, which is inspired by a rerun of House I saw a few nights ago. (The show is currently in the mid-season hiatus surrounding Christmas and New Years.... New episodes start Jan. 19! Meanwhile, reruns must suffice.)

A couple seasons ago, one of Dr. House's staff members, Eric Foreman, caught the same sickness as a patient the team was diagnosing--a patient that eventually died, and quite horrifically and in extreme pain. Luckily, the team was able to accurately diagnose and treat Foreman due to things they learned during their time with the patient who died.

Upon his recovery, Foreman returns to work with a new attitude onlife: A positive, everyday-is-a-blessing kind of mantality that is indicitive of many people--even chronic pessimists like Foreman--who have a near-death experience. Of course, this attitude drives House insane, as it conteracts the very traits of Foreman that make him a good doctor. It inhibits the team's ability to diagnose their unique medical mysteries, because Foreman's tendancy to question everything and everyone (including House) has gone out the window.

House knows this phase is just that: A temporary, irrational phase. So he convinces Foreman to get over it as soon as possible. When confronting him, the conversation goes something like this:

House: You need to get over this phase. I need you to question me and the team.
Foreman: Phase? Just because you're miserable doesn't mean I have to be. I've found happiness; I'm content. You're jealous.
House: Happiness?!? Contentness?!? Oh please... If everyone was content, the human race would have died long ago in it's own feces.

And that was all it took. And as gross as it sounds, I think he's right. We all want to be 'happy', but what if everyone really was? Would we just start pooping our pants instead of using toilets, totally disregarding the consequences? Would we, in our sense of total self-contentness, stop having sex and therefore cease to reproduce? For that matter, would we stop striving to be a better people? Stop caring about ourselves? Stop caring about others?

Happiness only exists because it's possible for it not to exist. And more often than not, it doesn't.

I, for one, never really feel content--with anything. But it encourages me--or rather, forces me--to strive for what's next... the next oppurtunity for improvement, the next big (or small) step. Without sadness, lonliness, fear, etc., there would be no happiness. And there would be no need to do anything, much less strive for improvement.

So there it is, my first blog. Now how do I publish this thing?...

--Jesse