SERVIS: It's like my dad always tells me.
The meaning of life. Why we're here.
He reminded me again last week. I'd been feeling pretty down at the time, a lost expression on my face as I stared at the textbook I was supposed to be reading.
I wasn't reading. I was thinking about the boy. That baby, just 23.
It was still too hard for me to think about the others.
My dad saw how sad I was and said, "It's like I always tell you."
Naturally, I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Yeah? What's that?"
"The meaning of life. Why we're here."
"Which is...?"
He shrugged. "To be happy, kid."
My column this week could have been about any number of things. So often I feel like when I sit down to write each week, my task is to pick a nightmare, any nightmare, and try in 650 words or less to make some sense of it. Figure it out. Make a plan.
This week I wanted to talk about the Iraq War. Genocide in Darfur. China's train into Thailand.
And then Virginia Tech happened.
And suddenly I became very, very tired.
The world we live in is filled with too many unhappy people. People who, like Seung-Hui Cho, live nightmares and create nightmares for the rest of us. These people go their whole lives without realizing what my dad is always telling me and what I am always forgetting.
Happiness. Realizing it. Spreading it.
But it's hard to remember. When you look around the world and see all the misery caused by so many miserable people, it's easy to feel crummy yourself.
What more, if you aren't careful, you might start to see the world as they do - as a nightmare.
But I am tired of all this misery, all these nightmares. Are you?
So here's the plan. Today, let's talk about the good stuff. Let's talk about music.
We all have those songs in our life that make us grin ear-to-ear. For some of us, just five seconds into Revolver, we're in bliss.
These are the songs that remind us how good life is.
I poked around my music collection and found 10 songs that remind me what happiness is.
And so if you've been feeling pretty blue lately, check these songs out so that you, too, will remember...
Happiness is the killer opening in My Morning Jacket's "One Big Holiday" and Joni Mitchell's voice in "Carey."
It's the sitar in Andrew Bird's "Fake Palindromes," the sex in the Pixies' "Hey" and the build up to the chorus in The Shins' "Kissing the Lipless."
And when Lennon comes in for "Oh Yoko," it's the silly sweetness of loving somebody.
You'll feel better after belting out "What do you want me to say" along with Travis Morrison in the song of the same title, better after the old man answers your questions in M. Ward's "Chinese Translation," better after jumping around to "Banquet" with Bloc Party.
And when The Books' "That Right Ain't Sh--" comes on, you'll know that all the crappy people and all the crappy events in this world aren't enough to keep you from realizing the simple truth.
You, my friend, are going to be okay.
