Too Happy to Create?

New York is the unhappiest state in the nation, according to a study featured in the linked article from today's Times. It ends with the following defense:

More important, might contentment be overrated? Seriously, isn’t restlessness, even outright discontent, often a catalyst for creativity?

We’re from the Harry Lime school. If you’ve seen the film classic “The Third Man,” you will remember that character’s admonition: “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.

In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

It sounds witty and all, but the logic is not sound. It's inaccurate to imply that 30 years of Borgia rule alone produced two out of the four ninja turtle artist doppelgangers and the Renaissance. For sure, da Vinci's engineering feats were directly influenced by warfare, but his and Michelangelo's artwork on the other hand...It was centuries of art evolution and the resulting state of art and the artist's role in that society; it was the chance biological production of genius; it was commissions by Pope Julius II-- all this and many other factors, I'm sure, which helped to produce the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the Sistine Chapel.

Warfare may have driven the economy, which drove art commissions, but to imply that da Vinci and Michelangelo's creativity and the Renaissance were all products of "warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed"? It's closer to a sensationalist statement rather than a truthful one. The fact that the writer of the article used it to justify the results makes him seem like a bitter New Yorker trying to console and defend his state's last place listing in the Happiness rankings.

On the other hand, I've noticed that my blogging/writing rate has decreased dramatically since acquiring a special earthly companion. Yet, the reason for lack of productivity isn't lack of ideas; rather, the lack of time. When I get out of work or ballet, I'm presented with a repeated dilemma: should I work on my ideas or hang out with Adam? And usually, the latter wins, though I'm continually trying to strike a good balance between the two. If only we can travel near the speed of light! But this creates a new dilemma: time dilation vs. penile length contraction? Hm..heh heh.

And besides, it has not been all sunshine and daisies, despite the fact that we get along better than two peas in a pod. I didn't realize what a straight-edge I was until I met Adam. Sometimes, I feel like we're Dorothy and Darth Vader dating. Like day and night in the same sky.