Happiness 2

        "Happy childhood = Happily Afterwards" is not always true, but if it is for you, please let me know.

         Happy comes and goes, sometimes settling in for a while, sometimes elusive, sometimes ramped up as jubilation, other times more muted.  My emotional weather patterns vary, but when CREST flairs, my HQ plummets for days at time.  I've been struggling off and on with winter blues and this autoimmune disorder, so decided today to reboot, to see the rheumatologist, to be reminded of the elements on the protocol that I need to follow more stringently: avoiding foods and drinks that contribute to inflammation.

        The anti-inflammation diet is essential for people with auto-immune diseases, but I've been gotten off the wagon a bit lately, which may account for the blues and myalgia.  I don't have fibromyalgia, just simple myalgia--which means muscle aches.  What sets off myalgia is sugar, fructose, gluten, Diet Coke, artificial sweeteners, etc.

        There are so many factors in the happiness factory!


         "This is Us" is a series about a family: three children of two  parents who love them and each other.  In some episodes we witness their childhood in flashbacks; in others we see the children as adults.  Their mother is married to her late-husband's best friend.

        The adopted son, Randall, the "easy" child, is a great father and husband, though he has his own anxieties, one of which is the imprint of being abandoned as a baby. The daughter is obese and addicted to food, and she's about to get married. The biological son is, in this season, in recovery from alcoholism.

        As part of his recovery program, his mother and siblings attend a meeting with him, and they all wind up saying things they've kept to themselves for years--their resentments and beliefs about each other. It's rocky, honest, and real.

        In "Rita"--the excellent Danish series I just watched--Rita is a wounded child, sometimes reckless in her personal life, a single mother of three, a chain-smoker, and a wonderful teacher. She takes risks in her professional domain--and those almost always advantage her students. No cookie cutter teacher, working in the less rule-bound Danish system than ours, she relates refreshingly honestly to children, including her own.