Happiness

I just came back from a really good play, a one-man show by Rick Reynolds called "Happiness." Navin and I have been talking about going to one of the small theaters in San Francisco forever, and we finally booked tickets for the Marsh. The little theater reminded me a bit of the one we had been to in London ... but well, that's actually kind of a pointless statement since none of you have actually been there... :) ... so, about the play: Happiness is the true (at least I think so) story of Rick Reynolds who as a kid never received love from his mum, lived through two failed marriages, and has two sons that keep him from falling further into depression. This main thread spins through the whole story, as Rick tells us about the real Rick, not the one that seems to be a happy man on stage, but the one that goes off stage and falls back into depression. He manages to tell this actually really sad fact in an extremely funny way, and offers a lot of interesting thoughts and theories about happiness.

One of his theories is that every person has an individual 'hum' level. Most Americans in fact, when asked whether they perceive themselves as a happy, moderately happy, moderately unhappy, or unhappy person, will answer 'moderately happy.' Some people are just by nature very happy, and he believes that part of it is also determined during your childhood, whether you had a happy childhood and got the feeling of being loved, or not.

Research suggests that married people are happier than single people. But if you assume that the basis of a healthy relationship is happiness, then this means that two already happy people who find each other just stay together much longer and that's why married people appear to be happier. Or in other words: a lot of single people have an overall lower hum level and nobody wants to stick around with them for long ... that's his theory...

Rick is an amazingly real, honest, and yes, extremely funny actor, and if he's ever back in town, I'll for sure go and see another play! And, I really wish for him to find a way to raise his hum-level. He already knows where to look for the answer: within himself.

Okay, blogging stage time over for today... ... ...

About Rick

My name is Rick Reynolds. I was born in Portland, Oregon, on December 13, 1951. I stand six feet two and one-half inches tall. I weigh 195 pounds. I have big hands, a big nose; I believe my penis to be of average size.

I'm losing my hair. I wouldn't even have this pathetic wisp of hair on my head if I hadn't paid thousands of dollars years ago for hair transplants. I guess you could say I'm vain. I know that I care way too much what people think about me.

I'm insecure and often jealous of my peers. In fact, I sometimes hope for horrible things to happen to my friends.

I don't believe in God. I'm pretty sure that God does not exist; I hope he doesn't hold that against me.

I'm obsessive. It's a good thing I don't have any really bad habits. I don't smoke. I've never been drunk. I don't do drugs. Sugar, I do. I have almost no self-control with sweets. I can't understand people who do.

I guess I have a lot of problems, so many that I don't have time to go into them all in detail. Suffice it to say I'm anal, obsessive, vain, quick to temper, overly introspective, lazy, judgmental, insecure, and self-righteous. Probably the most annoying thing about me is that I'm hugely opinionated. But I kind of make up for that by always being right.

The Marsh San Francisco Rick Reynolds Valencia