I like evening light, too! (Ashely River, Summerville, SC)
As much as I mourned the loss of my morning shoots in favor of walks, I switched to evening shoots. You know what? It’s certainly a different type of light, but it is lovely on its own. Also, I found that I’m quite happy shooting in the evening; it’s simply a shift in thoughts … acceptance if you will. Once that happens, it’s all good.
A coworker of mine listens to TED Talks almost every day. They are 21 minute talks about different subjects. TED is not a person, but an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. I have listened to a couple of them and found them moderately interesting. However, one of them really caught my interest: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?.
I would highly recommend having a look. As I said, it is only 21 minutes. In it Dan Gilbert, the speaker, explores, scientifically, what he calls Synthetic Happiness. Briefly, that is happiness that we create ourselves through acceptance of our situation vs. that happiness (natural) that we get when something works out to our benefit. I found the talk pretty fascinating as well as the experiments that were done to prove out the theories.
It’s interesting that our economy is largely based on us being unhappy and trying to fulfill that void by purchasing more and more. We are constantly offered more pixels, better sensors, sharper lenses, better film, etc., to name a few things. 
Then, dissatisfaction sets in with what we have. Yesterday, before the announcement, it was good enough. Today. No! When we finally decide to accept what we have, either because we have no choice or because we don’t want to change something, suddenly, we are happy with what we have … and what we have isn’t really so bad after all!
After you look at the talk, if you decide to, I’d like if you’d drop a comment to let me know what you thought about it. Heck, you don’t even have to watch it to leave a comment.
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5 Responses to “Synthetic Happiness”
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Paul, glad to see you’re adapting. With the change of the season and lower temperatures it’s probably much nicer being out in the evenings then it was earlier.
As a participant in our society of the forever wanting I found the Ted Gilbert TED talk you referenced to be interesting (I’m a sometimes listener of TED talks also). As with anything in life it’s all about proper balance and personal responsibility. I’m a gadget guy but there are personal limits and rules that control my decisions about purchases.
I don’t know that I like the term ‘Synthetic Happiness.’ It’s a catchy term and no doubt describes some circumstances but I believe you can be genuinely happy with what you have even if you might like to have the newest/greatest thing. To me the word synthetic implies that it’s never real. Perhaps it’s just the term.
Earl, I didn’t like the term synthetic, either. I’ve been trying to think of a better term for it, but all I can come up with is acceptance. Either way, it’s good to know that we have the ability to be happy, regardless of what we have or don’t have.
Regarding those temperatures, I rather like really chilly mornings, too. There’s something about the air. I love frost and the general lack of movement in the mornings. Total peace!
Paul, I’ve been reading your blog for a while, just as a lurker. But I had to comment today – I’d never heard of the TED talks, and I’m so glad I took the time to listen to the one you linked in today. Happiness is ever elusive for me, but not for material reasons – I’m something of a minimalist in that regard. So it applied to me in other ways. More along the lines of your preference for morning light but finding happiness with the evening light. (Gorgeous pictures, by the way!)
I’ll likely listen to it several times, it was that significant for me!
I don’t like “synthetic” much either, but the ideas behind it were solid.
Anyway, thanks again for linking that talk! I really enjoy your thoughts, and the topics you bring up.
This is why I try to keep a Zen perspective on things. Unhappiness comes from desire. Letting go is the easiest way to be happy. I work a lot (and am not always or even frequently successful) at curbing my desires. But I tend to be a very happy person, so I guess I’m doing OK.
(I should note that I lurk — I’m probably several of those mystery IP addresses you’ve seen over the last few months — but am spread too thin to post comments, even though I very much enjoy reading your posts and seeing your photographs. Today, though, I’m trying to rest at my desk… so I’m getting more blog reading / posting done than usual.)
This talk reminded me of a book I read by Jonathan Haidt called “The Happiness Hypothesis” – it uses a lot of the same experiments to show just what makes us happy as human beings and I found it hugely interesting – it gave me a new outlook on some things