The Mayoress Makes Some Resolutions for 2012

Can you believe it, dear constituents?  It's not only a new year, it's an election year, and will mark the fourth year of Meet the Pressler.  How the time does fly, much like a soaring bald eagle in the opening credits of The Colbert Report.

I swore in 2008 that a) if the Republicans won, I would move out of the country for a year, or b) no matter who won, I would be out of here for the 2012 election cycle.  I was just too exhausted from the emotion, involvement, and constant news onslaught of '08.

But here we are, it's 2012, and I don't plan on leaving the country (disregard the fact that I am currently out of the country).  So, in accordance with keep my sanity and yours as we enter Obama v Romney (prediction!), here are my three 2012 resolutions to you:

1. I'm going to stay more objective.  Not because I am - barring any major revelations, I'm voting for Obama, let's just get that out of the way (more on why later).  But rather than get emotional about it...

2. I'm going to go all pundit on your ass.  Opinions backed up by sorta facts but mostly other opinions!  But for serious, if I distance myself a bit in order to evaluate strategic moves, especially when it comes to my specialty of marketing and PR, I'll emerge far less emotionally exhausted.  Also, watch for me on CNN or MSNBC or Comedy Central.  Don't blink!

3. I'm going to wear my now-vintage Obama tank from '08 more often.  I can't resist gold metallic, people.  Gold metallic!

That Ever-Elusive Emotion: Happiness

There's a great combo-review of some new happiness books on the market in today's Times. Lord knows I spend an inordinate amount of time contemplating, pursuing, evaluating happiness. In other words, I sit luxuriously atop Maslow's pyramid. Love this excerpt:
We could canvass Gore, Rubin, Gilbert, the Dalai Lama and the many authors on the happier.com Web site and produce the Fundamentally Sound, Sure-Fire Top Five Components of Happiness:

(1) Be in possession of the basics — food, shelter, good health, safety.
(2) Get enough sleep.
(3) Have relationships that matter to you.
(4) Take compassionate care of others and of yourself.
(5) Have work or an interest that engages you.

I don’t see how even the most high-minded, cynical or curmudgeonly person could argue with that.

The real problem with happiness is neither its pursuers nor their books; it’s happiness itself. Happiness is like beauty: part of its glory lies in its transience. It is deep but often brief (as Frost would have it), and much great prose and poetry make note of this. Frank Kermode wrote, “It seems there is a sort of calamity built into the texture of life.” To hold happiness is to hold the understanding that the world passes away from us, that the petals fall and the beloved dies. No amount of mockery, no amount of fashionable scowling will keep any of us from knowing and savoring the pleasure of the sun on our faces or save us from the adult understanding that it cannot last forever.