Rabbit, run happy endings

A Race to Find Happiness There is something extraordinarily powerful about the euphoria associated with happiness. What causes this and where does it come from? Some say it has to do with a completeness in one's self, a sense of well being and understanding. It also comes from living for the present, and living for the future; from making others happy, and from enjoying our enemies' misery; from being with others, and from living in peaceful solitude. Different people experience different exhilarating emotions that are played through the acts of living. It is from this that we open our eyes to see what is fresh, for one's state of happiness or unhappiness colors everything else.

People who are happy perceive the world as safer, make decisions more easily, rate job applicants more favorably, and report greater satisfaction with their whole lives. When your mood is gloomy, life as a whole seems depressing.

John Updike liked being on the show and tried not ...

English: John Updike giving the 2008 Jefferson Lec...

A caricature of John Updike from The New York Revi...

Let your mood brighten, and suddenly your relationships, your self-image, and your hopes for the future all seem more promising. In John Updike's novel, rabbit, run, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is a man who wants constant change. He hasn't found his happiness so he runs away from what he knows as life to something new, in hopes that he can find his answer. For some people happiness is a walk in the woods, a sunny view of a waterfall, or some other experience of the tranquility and beauty of unspoiled places. Such settings may free us from stress that triggers bad moods or may put us in touch with a place in ourselves that is beyond unhappiness. For Rabbit it seems to be women and sexual compatibility and being in control.

Rabbit's passions flowed along the path of lust and sexual fulfillment. When he was with Ruth, everything...