Building Gypsy Rose

I got to thinking more about the headline that I came across last week, Half of UK Men Would Swap Sex For 50 Inch TV. My thoughts led me to the research of Richard Layard, author of “Happiness: Lessons from a New Science.” I was reading the text from one of Layard’s lectures at the London School of Economics - Happiness: Has Social Science a Clue? – and came across a table with the title, “Happiness in Different Activities.”

The table displayed the results from a survey in which people were asked what activities make up their typical day, as well as an index representing how much happiness is derived from each activity. At the top of the list (the activity that makes us happiest) is sex. Then comes socializing after work, dinner, relaxing, lunch, exercising, praying, socializing at work, etc. Watching TV ranked 9th (in terms of happiness) among the 19 activities listed, yet it is second only to working in terms how much time it consumes in a typical day.

So, back to the survey of men and their desire for that big TV. Why would they want to give up the activity that makes them happiest – sex – in exchange for a bigger . . . . TV screen?

I don’t get it. From where I sit, everything in life is bigger than TV.

Note: The above photos include, 1) towing Gypsy Rose to her winter home, 2) sailing Raven on Lake Champlain, 3) hiking with my sons, Jackson and David, along Hance Rapids in the Grand Canyon, 4) my son Jackson meeting a Panamanian man with a dugout canoe, and, 5) Marion and Meghann aboard Raven on a sunny July day.