Happiness in this World » Happiness

Why Raising Children Is So Hard

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:00:35 +0000

Photo: limaoscarjuliet

You don’t really know what an experience is like, of course, until you have it yourself. I remember thinking to myself when my wife and I first began discussing the idea of having children that this was especially true regarding parenthood. In the past I’d been able to predict with reasonable [...]

Removing A Splinter

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:00:19 +0000

Photo: SuperFantastic

Two weeks ago, my son came home from nursery school with a splinter in his palm. It was so small, though, I wasn’t sure if it was really there.

“It’s there,” my wife said.

She’d tried to squeeze it out before I’d come home but had only succeeded in hurting him [...]

Why Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:00:42 +0000

Photo: stevendepolo

As long as I can remember, I’ve been burdened with a desire for perfection in all my creative endeavors. No new sentence can be written until the previous one is just right. No garment painted can be abandoned until its texture seems utterly real, as if touching it wouldn’t yield the [...]

Celebrating Birthdays

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:00:16 +0000

Photo: Aih

One week ago, my family and I celebrated my father’s 75th birthday. Even writing that number I find shocking (probably almost as shocking as my father finds reading it). Birthdays have always represented the most important of all celebrations in my family—more important certainly than any local or national holidays. What, [...]

The Joy Of Not Hurrying

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:00:35 +0000

Photo: Autistic Psycho

The other day I found myself standing in a long line to buy breakfast in my hospital’s cafeteria when I noticed something that surprised me: I wasn’t feeling annoyed at having to wait. In the past, such a delay to the start of my day—to any part of my day, [...]