Drove across the rain-soaked hills of the Devil’s Backbone yesterday evening after listening to music with two friends at a local brewery in San Marcos. Watched the sun go down behind the heavy clouds. Talked to another friend on the phone during the journey, talked to still another when I got home. It was an evening of music and friendships, new and old. It was a nice way to end a long day.

The day itself was unremarkable. I fixed the hose I planned to fix on the pool and installed the new speakers in the ceiling. I approached the latter chore with trepidation, but after getting the first old speaker out the second was easy. The new speakers popped right in and now match the front speakers, and they all sound great. On a further technical note, I also gained a second sub-woofer to woof away. Unfortunately, the universe of people who really care about all that is astonishingly small. So, it remains a personal pleasure.

In the end, I guess that’s one key to a happy life. Do something you enjoy. Share it when you can, but don’t expect people to react the same way. Here’s a for-instance, James Gleick’s book, Chaos, Making a New Science changed my life by introducing me to chaos theory and people like Benoit Mandelbrot. To date, I have found no one who shares my enthusiasm, yet it gave me a successful business career and colors my entire world view to this day. Maybe I’m a lousy disciple. Still, I hold out hope that one day, I’ll meet that one person whose eyes will light up when they discover my joy and I realize they feel the same way.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale