Well-worth Reading

Screenwriter Valerie Alexander has a new column on the Huffington Post about happiness.  It's not always a subject I tend to read about.  ("Always" in this case will be defined as "usually.")  But since I know Valerie, I check it out. What I like about her general point of view is that it isn't all touch-feely and about how we're all supposed to be happy about everything all the time.  There's room in her worldview for getting pissed off on occasion.  Rather, she writes about how to deal with all that and stay focused as best one can

That aside, her latest column is a joy, and one I particularly agree with.

It's about how to recognize when people around you aren't happy -- titled "Three Sure Signs That a Person Is Not Happy" -- because such people tend to drag you down into their miasma. 

In particular, the very point of the article is close to a motto I came up with a few years ago, “Life is too short to spend time with people who make your life miserable."  I started avoiding such people at that point as much as possible.  They weren’t especially calling me, I was the one doing all the calling, and they just sucked the life out of the room whenever we talked.

I didn't 100% agree with everything in it, but overall I found it very sharp.  For instance, I thought her first point was spot on, "Unhappy people are mean to the waitress" and her explanation about that. 

You can read it here.