Jumping up together

Yesterday evening I had a long chat on what counts in the end, i.e. what is the foundation for happiness. We talked about what real friendship means and how moving to a new country makes you push yourself often to an oversocial mode even to gain 20 % of the social circle you had back home. We talked also about work. Career surely is important but if we actually take some time to think things properly, it is easily outruled by family, love and friends. Relying purely on career is an empty but common road to follow.

As I was thinking of subjects for this post, I went through the historical independence of Kosovo and the irritatingly evangelical empty rhetorics of Barack Obama. But it is difficult to say anything new on either of those subjects. The EU's recognition of the independence declaration made me smile whereas Obama's "momentum" makes me afraid of a post-electoral hangover. I must say - even sounding too much like a friend of the system - that I like Clinton's notion of being in the solutions business. But also her star is not shining as brightly in my eyes as some weeks back - Ms Clinton, dirty tricks may work on the short term but they are lethal for the system in the long run. Offering something yourself is better than bashing the other.

But back to the things that constitute happiness. I mean of course post-Bush and peace in Europe works also for my benefit but you get the point. A colleague of mine played this song of the Dutch singer Alain Clark to me at work last week on a sunny day. Even if it irritated me in the beginning due to its simpleness in melody and text, it truly makes me smile and makes me appreciate once more the fact that I have an amazing family and a group of true friends - although often too far away. It also made me think of a discussion I had with my awesome brother during the Christmas break. The foundation of happiness is fairly simple: when you have a firm basis and a 100% guaranteed safety net, it is easier to jump higher.