A recent study has found that just six months after winning a large lottery prize, even millions of dollars, people reported being not much happier than they were before winning. Shocking, don't you think? Plus, social scientists find that happy people tend to do what they love for a living or a hobby. Bottom line, it seems to me that the happiest among us are people feeling in control of their lives. There is a Brazilian poem that admonishes us not to, "... be like most people who instead of searching for happiness, rather, they live avoiding the risk of unhappiness. Don't allow the fear of pain to be stronger then the delight of love you feel."
To illustrate, I introduce Carla Pinetti and Lilli Bowen. These two gals were both lowly freshmen at Oroville High when Jesse and Chuck were popular upper classmen. There was some elemental social interaction between the four of them from time to time back then in the form of dragging the main, beer bingeing, and brief moments of under-the-ol'-angora petting. Then both guys went off to college and went out of touch. A few years later the girls left town to what turned out to be unbearable lives and careers in big cities: Carla to Chicago as the creative director for a strategic marketing and branding firm and Lilli to Miami as the head of sustainability strategy for a software company. Ultimately both sought and found the freedom of life without a dominating husband or a fool for a boss, back in their hometown.
Jesse's love interest in elementary school was Carla who tried desperately to kiss him in the first grade and finally succeeded in doing so by the third grade. Today Carla has developed a popular line of olive oil based cosmetics being successfully sold under the label "OLIVE U." Regionally it has already become a popular line of erotic love oils, body lotions and hair products that seems poised to take off nationally. The goal is to sell it for $5 million. Today she lives modestly, but is not wanting due to the entrepreneurial instincts she inherited from her father.
Lilli is a food presenter at the Olive Festival's Artisan Market when Chuck reconnects with her. Currently she is a successful, local television cooking show host, cook book author, and touring food presenter, delighted to be back in California's charming, old world environment of the olive country. She often describes the production of perfect olive oil as a metaphor for finding balance in life. There's probably a book in there somewhere.
Next week the gang of four gets back together at last. They will learn that everyday life is a slippery existence indeed, where nothing is certain and what can happen when life throws them an unexpected, extra-virgin curve ball.
Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli
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