beach thoughts

question: is it possible to make other people happy?
subquestion: should you even try?

answer: yes. and yes.

in spanish, there are two different verbs which correspond to the verb "to be" in english. the first one, "ser," is a permanent state of being. the second, "estar," is temporary. so, for example:

soy guapa = i am hott. always.
estoy guapa = i am hott right now only.

soy aburrido = i am boring. always.
estoy aburrido = i am bored. just right now.

this is an important one not to mess up, you can see.

i figure that:
1. only you can make yourself ser happy.
2. you can make only yourself ser happy.

this kind of happiness comes from your outlook on life, or something. it comes from your soul, or somewhere. it is constant and, as anne frank says, it can only be dimmed. it is your responsibility, pretty much. you can permanently affect no one else's and no one else can permanently affect yours.

that being said, you can:
1. make other people estar happy.
2. be made estar happy by other people.

so yes. we should try. i find it rather easy to make someone estar happy, actually. pirate jokes, for instance. and brownies. even just smiling. it must become easier to maintain our ser happiness with good moments of estar happiness in our lives, right? and giving other people estar happiness makes me estar happy also. even ser happy.

the flip side of this is that:
1. you can make other people estar sad.
2. other people can make you estar sad.

this is just a dimming of the ser happiness though. they can't touch the root of the ser.

therefore, no one person can make you ser sad.
and if it so happens that you are ser sad, this is something you need to work through in your own system. but a lot of estar happiness from other people never hurt anything.

one last thing.
i suspect there are adjectives that other people can give your ser.
for example, another person can make you ser loved.
you should be ser loved by yourself, but others can do it, too.
and it's easier to ser happy when we're ser loved.

other people can also estar love us. that's like how you love pizza i would think.
or like, how you love the guy who brings you a towel when you spill your beer.
or how you love a random librarian. but the ser love is the really, really amazing kind.

so go forth and spread the ser love. and please, ser happy.
but i can't make you.