today i had the opportunity to think a lot about how important it is to be happy. to be aware of what makes you happy, what you need to be happy.
it reminds me of the talk sara ahmed gave last year at sydney uni about happiness. a version i imagine of this book, and other papers. i left the talk dissatisfied with what she had said; i have memories of words like ‘victim’, ‘problematising gay’, and ‘dependency’, but am on the other side of the world to my notes so can’t remember clearly. but i remember resisting some of her ideas completely.
and now, having spent time with someone who didn’t seem happy, and to whom i couldn’t ‘give’ happiness to as such, i’m tempted to go back and reread, rethink what ahmed is talking about. this person’s happiness (or lack of) was about being alone, or lonely, and isolated, and unwanted. and a lot of what ahmed talks about seems to rely on an other. an other person, or object, and i’m curious to see where she takes these thoughts.
