The pursuit of happy people

It's amazing how thoughts interrupt (or perhaps it's that it adds to the almost programmed) routines of our lives. A curious thought occurred to me while I stood outside hanging out the laundry; it stemmed from an earlier conversation with my wife about a more tumultuous time in our relationship. It was a thought about happiness or the notion of being happy; how happiness can radiate from someone, their appearance and disposition altered.

People tend to gravitate more towards happy people. There is just something about that energy they exude; it intrigues, attracts, stimulates, and other people seem to want to experience and feed off that energy.

Then my thoughts drifted a bit, somewhere between then and now - that troublesome time, and I thought; it is so much harder and less interesting to pretend to be happy. The facade of happiness is tiresome and sad; it sinks you deeper into a state of discontent, melancholy, neurosis. Digging yourself out of the cesspit of emotional feces is difficult, but once you have managed to claw your way out, there is no looking back.

Pretense of any kind is quite strenuous; but honesty of emotions has its own idiosyncrasies; honesty believe it or not is not always the best policy. So, do you straddle the line of honesty and pretense or do you be honest with yourself and say fuck the pretense.