Making the Titanic Fun Again
Plus, the U-shaped curve of happiness
Is your happiness U-shaped? Or more of a series of wwwwwwww’s?
By all measures, last weekend was a great weekend.
We played a lovely afternoon set at Jeff Fest. Friends on blankets watched from shady spots under the trees. I bestowed “roadie” status upon my 5 year old son and he helped me load in and out.
The festival’s highlight for my child was the “Kid Zone” which, for $10, consisted of an all-day pass to a bounce house and a massive blow-up climbing structure with a gigantic slide.
I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t even register this was meant to be the Titanic slamming into an iceberg and sinking into the ocean’s depths until one full day into the festival.
The kids loved it! My son did ask me what the Titanic was, and we had a good conversation about lifeboats and class differences and human arrogance.
We spent the whole weekend basically at the festival. It was summer-idyllic in many ways: green grass, sunshine, barefoot, fresh fried donuts and elotes, friends on blankets and #whiteclaws, my adorable, sweet baby boy alternating between sliding gleefully down the poor, doomed Titanic and racing over to my blanket to give me a kiss before running off, barefoot, to climb up and do it again. Peak summer.
Have you ever heard of the “U Curve of Happiness”? Basically it says your 40s are your least happy years and then things start swinging up.
One interesting thing is that the studies supporting it have data that this is true across cultures, and maybe even applies to apes and chimpanzees?!?
There are some counter-arguments whether the U-curve is actually real; I’ll let you do your own critical research on this. My own happiness graph probably looks more like a series of w’s. Nonetheless it’s a helpful concept, when there’s a melancholy - despite your personal life being lovely - that you just can’t shake.
Going into the studio next weekend - the last mixing session before declaring our new album done.
I’m also playing a solo show in Seattle on August 4th (with Shelby of Richard Album!) that I’ll keep you PNWers posted about.
More secret notes soon ❤️,
Jessica