The Ministry of Happiness

Happiness is Mardi Gras: Mobile

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Mardi Gras: Mobile

I was a weird kid, which probably goes a long way to explaining why I’m a weird adult. I was the only kid I knew who didn’t like parades. I mean really, go sit on a curb for an hour or so, you know so you don’t lose your good spot. Watch a bunch of old guys and little kids all bored out of their minds come walking by, marching bands, bad marching bands. A few fire trucks, some really sad-looking clowns all for what? Never got the excitement around them.

Then some years ago I checked off a bucket list item and attended my first Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I wandered up St. Charles and took a spot in the crowd near one of the barriers and waited on the parade to come. There was a bit of a flashback, there early, by the curb waiting. People seemed generally happy and were very friendly. Little kids propped up on ladder seats, people with coolers, who once they found out it was my first parade started sharing all sorts of food and drinks with me.

Then the parade came, this was not the lame old parade I was used to in my childhood. First the floats were huge and really well done. The marching bands were really talented. You could hear the crowd screaming with joy as the parade came down St. Charles. Then the first float arrived and the krewe on the float was throwing beads and stuffed animals and cups and medallions. People were going nuts for these throws coming off of the floats and honestly it’s almost impossible to not get completely swept up in the madness, I was not immune. I was instantly in love with Mardi Gras parades.

I often tell people that I love Mardi Gras and I typically get, “not me, all the nudity and drunkenness is a turn off.” It’s at that point I know they’ve never done a Mardi Gras parade. What they are relating is the drunken debauchery, the giant frat party that Bourbon Street has turned into during Mardi Gras. literally the place I spend the least amount of time when I’m in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I love attending the parades and I love shooting photos in New Orleans, at the parades and around the city in general and then there is the food, my god the food. New Orleans is an eaters paradise. At any level of culinary snobbery there are places to eat. I’m not a five-star restaurant guy I prefer beignets and the cafeteria magnificence that are places like Mothers and Willie Mae’s Scotch House. Give me a muffaletta at the Central Grocery and I’m a happy man. Opportunities for Gumbo and Po’boys abound, eating there is such a pleasure.

In the south I always hear from folks, “well, you’ve never done Mobile, that’s the real Mardi Gras, it was the first Mardi Gras in America.” That is true by the way, Mobile was having Mardi Gras celebrations before New Orleans was even a city. Mardi Gras in Mobile is fun, the parades are good, the floats well done. The parades are a bit smaller than the ones in New Orleans, the throws are a bit different. They actually throw food in addition to beads and stuffed animals, etc… Little Moon Pies are really popular, but I’ve seen cookies, peanuts, gum and candy. I caught a bag of peanut M&Ms and the most interesting throw I’ve ever gotten, a pack of chicken flavored Top Ramen!

What I will say is that there are a lot more premium throws here in Mobile. More stuffed animals and balls and hoola-hoops. The parade route isn’t as crowded as in New Orleans and the kids make out really well here. If I was taking kids on a trip to Marid Gras for the first time this would be the place. They’ll get a TON of stuff and likely nice big stuffed animals, they’ll have an absolute blast. They’ll also be in smaller crowds and it’s not quite as insane as the parade route in New Orleans. In Mobile, the route, non-weekend parades, are a couple of rows deep and at places you are alone at the barriers. Weeknight, Sunday, I’ve never seen a parade route spot in New Orleans that wasn’t at least four rows deeps. The exception, the weekend before Fat Tuesday on the day when there are like four parades in a row and by the fourth and smallest parade, people have mostly bailed because the first parade started eight hours earlier.

If you’re an adult without kids and you’re going to your first Mardi Gras, go to New Orleans. In Mobile, most of the restaurants are chain fast food and sports bar. There are a sprinkling of nicer restaurants along Dauphin Street the main social area downtown. I’m sure there are great restaurants in Mobile but the options on foot and downtown are limited. I don’t drink very much at all, but there are plenty of bars to visit in Mobile. Scale is the real difference, there are hundreds of restaurants in the French Quarter alone, innumerable bars and then everything else that makes New Orleans so unique.

I have one more night in Mobile and have gotten lots of great throws to send up north to my nieces and nephews. I’ve had fun her in Mobile but I head for New Orleans in two days and I’m excited. Happy Mardi Gras and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Some Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

How Travel Makes You Happier

Fear is Killing Your Happiness

Our Best Happiness Posts of 2015

My favorite Appalachian Trail Photos of 2015

Why I’m Happy Right Now!

Posted in Random Happiness | Tagged beads, food, happiness, krewes, Mardi Gras, mobile, new orleans, parades, throws | 3 Comments

Happy News – February 1, 2016

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happy News – February 1, 2016

Our weekly tour around the web to bring you positive and happy news ~ Rev Kane

Video of a sweet little 2 year-old boy with Down’s Syndrome reciting the alphabet.

Baltimore pays teens to shovel sidewalk for elderly and disabled

Strangers form human chain to save trucker from fall

Mosque opens it’s doors to stray cats to keep them safe and warm

Happy News – January 25, 2016

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happy News – January 25, 2016

Our weekly tour around the web to bring you positive and happy news stories ~ Rev Kane

From the Huffington Post, 5 Headlines that will restore your faith in humanity

Woman Drinking Coffee

How to Hack Your Day, So You Can Have the Best Monday Ever

Cat rescued by 3 Huskies made part of the pack

Video of Panda at the Washington Zoo Enjoying the Snowstorm

Happiness is the Poet Laureate of the Gutter

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happiness is the Poet Laureate of the Gutter

Some people go crazy, what horrible lives they must lead

Tonight I feature my favorite poet the quotes are his as well. I first discovered him through his books and stories, Ham on Rye, Post Office and sprinkled through the books there were poems that I found interesting. I did not know he was actually far more well-known as a poet. I myself had been writing poetry for a couple of years at that point and had literally told no one. Not a single person had ever seen or read one of my poems. In addition to all of the normal fears that any writer has about their work I had an additional anxiety about my poetry. You see my only real experience with poetry growing up was from the poetry we read in school. I liked some of it, Shakespeare, William Carlos Williams but in general the classic poetry we were fed didn’t resonate with me at all, and all of the poetry we were fed had some common characteristics. The language was flowery, lots of twenty-five cent vocabulary words, there were certain structures that had to be followed, generally things had to rhyme. It all seemed like writing meant to point out to you that if you weren’t highly educated and well-spoken that poetry couldn’t be created by you, and should be read as a world you aspire to but can never have. It was a false opinion but I had limited exposure.

In contrast, what I wrote was not flowery, it was direct, dark, I swore it looked and felt nothing like the poetry I had read before. Then, I was introduced through his books to the poetry of the Poet Laureate of the Gutter, Charles Bukowski. He didn’t write flowery positive pieces about beauty and love, he wrote about how hard life was, being drunk, feeling inadequate and alienated. He was distinctly middle class, his subjects included other drunks, hookers, and bums. He bared his life and his soul and made no excuses for it not being pretty and it wasn’t.

But there is a difference between pretty and beautiful and although Bukowski’s soul was pretty, it was absolutely, horridly beautiful and it connected with me. He pointed to the same absurdities in life I see every day. He felt like an alien on earth and I identify with that feeling completely. Seeing his work, seeing people react positively to it gave me the courage to share my work. This is why I have said on many occasions that Charles Bukowski gave me permission to write poetry and I thank him for it. My writing has become an outlet that has made me a saner and happier person.

So here are a few pieces by Bukowski for your enjoyment. I’ll share links for more of his stuff and other poets below, you see knowing about Bukowski opened a door for me into a whole world of poetry I never knew existed. Through that door I’ve found folks like Peter MacWilliams, Sapphire, Warsan Shire, Doug Draime, and most recently Ashe Vernon. Their writings are raw, brutally in your face, unapologetic for their hard views and in doing so they make you have to deal with the realities of the world. In my literature I like escapism, in my poetry, harsh reality. Enjoy and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Bukowski – The Laughing Heart

Bukowski Again

More Bukowski

Even More Bukowski

Other Pieces You Might Enjoy!

Powerful Women Poets

Wolfgang Carstens

Adrian Manning

Hosho McCreesh

Suzanne Burns

More Rev Kane

Posted in Happiness is Poetry | Tagged ashe vernon, bukowski, happiness, poems, poetry, warsan shire, writing | Leave a comment

Happy News – January 18, 2016

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happy News – January 18, 2016

Our weekly tour around the web to bring you positive and happy news stories ~ Rev Kane

Iranians Create Kindness Walls to Help Out Homeless

Valedictorian anonymously posts positive comments about every one of his classmates.

Anderson Cooper outfits all K9’s in Virginia Police Department with Bulletproof Vests

Ellen Degeneres Wins Humanitarian Award, Donates $200K to St. Judes

Happiness is Poetry: Powerful Female Poets

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Poetry: Powerful Female Poets

Tonight for my weekly arts post I decided to reach back and drop a quick sample of three of my favorite poets, Sapphire, Warsan Shire and my newest, Ashe Vernon. A piece by each with a link back to where you can get more of their work, enjoy and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Warsan Shire

Excuses for why we fail at love

I’m lonely so I do lonely things
Loving you was like going to war; I never came back the same.
You hate women, just like your father and his father, so it runs in your blood.
I was wandering the derelict car park of your heart looking for a ride home.
You’re a ghost town I’m too patriotic to leave.
I stay because you’re the beginning of the dream I want to remember.
I didn’t call him back because he likes his girls voiceless.
It’s not that he wants to be a liar; it’s just that he doesn’t know the truth.
I couldn’t love you, you were a small war.
We covered the smell of loss with jokes.
I didn’t want to fail at love like our parents.
You made the nomad in me build a house and stay.
I’m not a dog.
We were trying to prove our blood wrong.
I was still lonely so I did even lonelier things.
Yes, I’m insecure, but so was my mother and her mother.
No, he loves me he just makes me cry a lot.
He knows all of my secrets and still wants to kiss me.
You were too cruel to love for a long time.
It just didn’t work out.
My dad walked out one afternoon and never came back.
I can’t sleep because I can still taste him in my mouth.
I cut him out at the root, he was my favorite tree, rotting, threatening the foundations of my home.
The women in my family die waiting.
Because I didn’t want to die waiting for you.
I had to leave, I felt lonely when he held me.
You’re the song I rewind until I know all the words and I feel sick.
He sent me a text that said “I love you so bad.”
His heart wasn’t as beautiful as his smile
We emotionally manipulated one another until we thought it was love.
Forgive me, I was lonely so I chose you.
I’m a lover without a lover.

*****************************************

Ashe Vernon

Golden Delicious

You were melt-in-my-mouth—
Tuesdays under the sky.
I picked your words like
fruit from the vine;
we were decadent.
Stretched out in the sunshine-touch
of each other’s lips,
your skin hot like a Texas summer,
I could have spent forever
tucked against the apple orchard of your chest.
My sundress hiked up around my thighs.
The two of us, laughing, with
“Someday” on our tongues—dripping down our chins,
all gold and vibrant.
We were ripe for eating.
We were sticky-sweet.
We were less Forever than we thought.
And when the cold set in,
I was still eating apples
even after you’d dug up your roots and gone.
(You said I held my hands too still.)
I wasn’t doing nothing.
I was putting down seeds
and waiting for Spring.

*******************************

Sapphire

Wild Thing

And I´m running,
running wild,
running free,
like soldiers down
the beach,
like someone
just threw me
the ball.
My thighs pump
thru the air
like tires
rolling down
the highway
big & round
eating up the ground
of America
but I never been any
further than 42nd Street.
Below that is as
unfamiliar as my
father´s face,
foreign as the smell of
white girls´pussy,
white girls on the bus,
white girls on TV
My whole world is
black & brown & closed,
till I open it
with a rock,
christen it with
blood.
BOP BOP
the music
pops thru me
like electric shocks,
my sweat is a
river running
thru my liver
green with hate,
my veins bulge out
like tomorrow,
my dick is
the Empire State Building,
I eat your fear
like a chimpanzee
ow ow
ow whee
ow!
My sneakers glide off
the cement like
white dreams
looking out at the world
thru a cage of cabbage
& my mother´s fat,
hollering don´t do this
& don´t do that.
I scream against the restraint
of her big ass sitting on my face
drowning my dreams in sameness.
I´m scared to go
it hurts me to stay.
She sits cross-legged
in front the TV
telling me no
feeding me
clothing me
bathing me in her ugliness
high high in the sky
18th floor of the projects.
Her welfare check buys me $85 sneakers
but can´t buy me a father.
She makes cornbread from Jiffy box mix
buys me a coat
$400, leather like everybody else´s.
I wear the best, man!
14 karat gold chain
I take off before I go wildin´.
Fuck you nigger!
Nobody touches my gold!
My name is Leroy
L-E-R-O-Y
bold gold
I got the goods
that make the ladies
young & old
sign your name across my heart
I want you to be my baby
Rapper D
Rapper G
Rapper I
my name is lightning
across the sky
So what I can´t read
you spozed to teach me
you the teacher
I´m the ape
black ape
in white sneakers
hah hah
I rape
rape
rape
I do the wild thing
I do the wild thing
My teacher asks me
what would I do
if I had 6 month
to live.
I tell her I´d fuck her,
sell dope & do the wild thing.
My thighs are locomotives
hurling me thru the
underbrush of Central Park,
the jungle.
I either wanna be a cop
or the biggest dope dealer in Harlem
when I grow up.
I feel good!
It´s a man´s world,
my sound is king
I am the black man´s sound.
Get off my face whining bitch!
No, I didn´t go to school today
& I ain´t going tomorrow!
I like how the sky looks
when I´m running,
my clothes are new & shiny,
my tooth gleams gold.
I´m fast as a wolf
I need a rabbit,
the sky is falling
calling my name
Leroy Leroy.
I look up
blood bust
in my throat
it´s my homeboys
L.D., C.K. & Beanbutt!
Hey man what´s up!
I got the moon
in my throat,
I remember when
Christ sucked my dick
behind the pulpit,
I was 6 years old
he made me promise
not to tell no one.
I eat cornbread &
collard greens.
I only wear Adidas
I´m my own man,
they can wear New Balance or Nike
if they want,
I wear Adidas.
I´m L.D.
lover
mover
man with the money
all the girls know me.
I´m classified as mildly retarded
but I´m not
least I don´t think
I am.
Special Education classes
eat up my brain
like last week´s greens
rotting in plastic containers.
My mother never
throws away anything.
I could kill her
I could kill her
all those years
all those years
I sat
I sat in classes
for the mentally retarded
so she could get
the extra money welfare gives
for retarded kids.
So she could get
some money,
some motherfuckin´ money.
That bitch
that bitch
I could kill her
all the years
I sat next to kids
who shitted on themselves,
dreaming amid
rooms of dull eyes
that one day
my rhymes
would break open
the sky
& my name would
be written
across the marquee
at the Apollo
in bold gold
me bigger
than Run DMC
Rapper G
Rapper O
Rapper Me
„Let´s go!“ I scream.
My dick is a locomotive
my sister eats like a 50 ¢ hot dog.
I scream, „I said let´s go!“
„It´s 40 of us
a black wall of sin.
The god of our fathers
descends down & blesses us,
I say thank you Jesus.
Now let´s do the
wild thing.
I pop off the cement
like toast outta toaster
hot hard crumbling
running
running
the park is green
combat operation
lost soul
looking for Lt. Calley
Jim Jones
anybody who could direct
this spurt of semen
rising to the sky.
soldiers
flying thru
the rhythm
„Aw man!
nigger please
nigger
nigger
nigger.
I know
who I am.“
My soul sinks
to its knees &
howls under the
moon rising full,
„Let´s get a female jogger!“
I shout into the twilight
looking at the
middle-class thighs
pumping past me,
cadres of bitches
who deserve to die
for thinking they´re better
than me
You ain´t better than
nobody bitch.
The rock begs my hand
to hold it.
It says, „Come on man.“
T.W., Pit Bull, J.D. & me
grab the bitch
ugly big nose white bitch
but she´s beautiful cause she´s white
she´s beautiful cause she´s skinny
she´s beautiful couse she´s gonna die
cause her daddy´s gonna cry
Bitch!
I bring the rock down
on her head
sounds dull & flat
like the time I busted
the kitten´s head.
The blood is real & red
my dick rises.
I tear off her bra
feel her perfect pink breasts
like Brooke Shields
like bitches in Playboy
Shit! I come all over myself!
I bring the rock down
the sound has rhythm
hip hop ain´t gonna stop
till your face sees
what I see every day
walls of blood
walls of blood
she´s wriggeling like
a pig in the mud.
I never seen a pig
or a cow
´cept on TV.
Her nipples are like
hard strawberries
my mouth tastes
like pesticide.
I fart.
Yosef slams her
across the face with a pipe.
My dick won´t get
hard no more.
I bring the rock down
removing what she
looks like forever
ugly bitch
ugly bitch
I get up
blood on my hands
semen in my jeans
the sky is black
the trees are green
I feel good baby
I just did
the wild thing!

Happiness is a Powerball Jackpot

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happiness is a Powerball Jackpot

I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money ~ Pablo Picasso

This week’s Powerball jackpot is 1.5 billion dollars as I write this, the worlds largest ever lottery jackpot. Yes I have tickets and yes I’m good at math. I completely understand the odds of a single ticket winning is 1 in 292.2 million, I know that I have a hugely better chance of being struck by lightning. But what I paid for is not a realistic chance of winning, the fact is someone will eventually and it’s utterly unlikely to be me. When I normally play the lottery I play the fantasy 5 games that have long, (but if you’re going to win huge money the odds will always be long), but better odds of winning. I figure it’s worth $2 a week to try to win a few hundred thousand. Besides, no matter what people say, that $100 a year properly invested is not likely to make much of an impact on my finances.

No, what I’m paying for with my Powerball tickets is the opportunity to fantasize for a few days. Sure, I can sit around all day long without a ticket and dream of ways of spending that money. However, having even just one ticket in my pocket makes that fantasy actually possible and that ups the ante on the fantasy and makes it that much more enjoyable. I mean you can play poker all day long with peanuts as a stake but the game is infinitely more fun even at just a penny ante level. It’s the same principle at work here.

So if I win, no I won’t be going back to work. Yes, I’ll still be doing the Ministry of Happiness and writing. I’ll get to do a lot more adventure travel and travel in general. I’d move toward a life of travel and writing, the same thing I’d do if I could make an equivalent living from writing instead of being an educational administrator.

The beauty of the big money however is that I’d have a house on the ocean. A really nice cabin in the mountains to go with it. I’d be a bit decadent for sure, I think we all would. But I’d also take care of all of my nieces and nephews educationally, I’d surprise some good friends with some great gifts. I’d bless a few charities with some significant help. I’d have really good season tickets to the Steelers.

So great, the Powerball ticket allows you to do a bunch of frivolous daydreaming, so what? Well, positive day dreams are fun, they make us happy and that by itself would be worth the $2 ticket but there’s a bigger reason this can be important to your happiness. You see your daydreams tell you something important. Those what if daydreams are showing you what you love, what you want, what you are passionate about.

In mine, I’d become a full-time travel writer, well that’s what I’ve been gradually working toward for the last few years. I may not get there until I have enough retirement set up in my current gig. But this says I’m passionate about writing and travel. I hope you know those things about yourself already, but if you don’t, this just might be a way to figure them out. And I’m sorry in advance for suggesting the idea, you see when you do this, you might leave out some people and things that you feel should be important, that’s telling you something as well. Below are a couple of links on how daydreams and happiness intersect.

Daydreaming makes you happier

Creativity, Happiness & Daydreaming

TED talks – Surprising effects of a wandering mind

So drop $2, daydream away and have a happy day and maybe you’ll even hit the jackpot and have a very happy day my friends. Besides, if you’re suddenly a billionaire, you can become Batman! ~ Rev Kane

Some Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Why I’m Happy Right Now!

Life Lessons from Granny

Holiday Happiness: Overcoming Worry

Best Happiness Posts of 2015

Posted in personal happiness, Random Happiness | Tagged Batman, daydream, fantasy fest, happiness, lottery, money, Pittsburgh Steelers, powerball, TED talk, writing | 4 Comments

Happy News – January 11, 2015

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Michael Kane

Happy News – January 11, 2015

Remember that those who are happiest are not the people getting more, but the people giving more ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Our weekly tour around the web to bring you positive and happy news stories ~ Rev Kane

Alarm clock wakes you up with aromas instead of sound – I totally need one of these.

Get your own face 3D printed on a Lego figure

Mother and Kids Treat Homeless Community to Sweaters & Food

There are Angels Among Us – A true story of a friend who we’ve lost

A Happy Convergence

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Michael Kane

A Happy Convergence

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us. ~ Ashley Montagu

I was driving the other day and the phone rang, it was my brother, he doesn’t typically call during the middle of the day so I was concerned there might be something wrong. So I answered the phone and asked what was up, “A lot actually.” It turned out that my newest nephew had been born a month early and on my brother’s birthday. His other son’s birthday is two days later so the beginning of January is now a three way birthday convergence in his family. I was really excited for him, it was a heck of a birthday present.

The end of 2015 was a bit of a rough time for me but 2016 seems to be starting out pretty positive, I’m making good progress on the book I’m writing, I have a new nephew, I recently got to spend a bit of time with an old friend and a have dinner with a friend I made on the Appalachian Trail this summer. Someone suggest recently that it looks like 2016 is going to be a great year, but I’m not quite ready to go there. I’ve never experienced a year that was wholly bad or good and I’m sure 2016 will bring with it a mix of both, but whether it’s a good year is really all about our perspective, that’s the point I want to bring forward tonight.

You see no one’s life is fully bad or good, in fact, if you carry that thought out nothing is wholly good or bad. It’s the idea behind the Yin/Yang symbol or the saying every cloud has a silver lining. There’s a little bit of good in all bad, and a little bad in all good. In most circumstances in our life we don’t experience the extremes, we aren’t constantly faced with really terrible or really wonderful situations. What we see are situations that are a mix of both good and bad. What really determines whether we see them as good or bad situations is the way we decide to to look at them.

So our attitude is really important to whether or not we see our lives as going well or not. So why not give yourself the benefit of the doubt and choose to look at the positive in any situation instead of focusing on the negative. One place this is really important is in controlling our thoughts and guarding against worry. Worry is automatic focus on the negative and worse, negatives that may never come to be making worry a waste of time. I have written about this before in a piece called, worry the enemy of happiness. the piece has some great tips on reducing worrying.

So my friends how about a really positive resolution for the new year, that we’ll choose to focus on the positive in each situation and worry less. If we could accomplish those two things we’d have a truly good year, full of happy days ~ Rev Kane