Hello, bloggers.

I’ve been watching a television show called Flip This House on the A&E Network, where they take a house, tear down a wall, change the colors, and put different furniture in, and then they secretly tape people coming in looking at the house before and after it’s done.  People see what they really don’t see, and they can’t visualize what it’s going to look like afterwards.  They come in and say, “Your walls shouldn’t be purple and green, they should be white!  And God forbid you should wash your windows!”

And then they fix it up, and the public comes in and says, “How wonderful!  Look at the beautiful color on the walls!”  It’s the same place, only there’s been a little bit of nip and tuck here and there.

To me, this says something about the realization of how little it takes to go from being boring, complicated, morose, and unhappy, to being carefree, happy, productive, and fun-to-be-around.  In the quest for happiness, maybe we ought to start looking at our old furniture and garbage.  I doubt the producers of the show have any intention of challenging anyone in that manner.  When I watch it, it doesn’t motivate me to go buy a house and fix it up, but it contstantly motivates me to keep tending my own house, which is inside myself.  When you watch these, it’s simple things to do, and it makes such a difference.  I think it’s the same for our own lives.  If something is bothering us, we ought to grab it and look at it, and if we don’t like it, throw it away—the hell with it! 

Matt