So, my most excellent friend Chris has loaned me his copy of Stumbling on Happiness. It is giving me interesting things to think about including this:
According to the author, there is something called an “inescapability trigger” that brings our “psychological immune system” of denial, looking to the bright side, and generally improving our experience of negative things.
So, we got a phone call several weeks ago, asking whether we’d consider showing our home on the Ann Arbor Old West Side (OWS) Annual Homes Tour. We agreed.
After a brief rush mixing panic and euphoria, I now have about 12,000 little projects I want to do before the tour (Sunday, September 17). Repaint study, fix paint problem in bath, reupholster living room chair, revisit some of my garden work, repaint porch, refurbish front door exterior frame…..
One of my jobs is to find “hosts” who would be willing to act as kind of pseudo-docents on the day of the tour. There would be 2 shifts
These hosts would hang out in our house for a shift during the tour, answering questions, directing traffic, and watching over things. In addition to the adulation and respect of many 10s of happy tour-goers, and in addition to our gratitude, hosts get a free ticket to the tour and will not have to wait in line at any of the other homes (hosts can go in through the back door of the other homes).
If you’d consider doing this, let me know. We’d need ~10 people total (!).
My nephew seems to be enjoying the robot I knitted for him….