WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.570 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.570 --> 00:00:01.887 align:middle line:90% Let me see here. 00:00:01.887 --> 00:00:02.970 align:middle line:90% You guys are a good crowd. 00:00:02.970 --> 00:00:04.012 align:middle line:90% Thank you for being here. 00:00:04.012 --> 00:00:07.247 align:middle line:90% 00:00:07.247 --> 00:00:08.080 align:middle line:90% Let's turn the page. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.710 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.710 --> 00:00:11.210 align:middle line:90% Oh, no. 00:00:11.210 --> 00:00:12.158 align:middle line:90% Let's go back. 00:00:12.158 --> 00:00:13.910 align:middle line:90% You going to do this one? 00:00:13.910 --> 00:00:15.050 align:middle line:90% Yep. 00:00:15.050 --> 00:00:15.650 align:middle line:90% Page 21. 00:00:15.650 --> 00:00:18.180 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.180 --> 00:00:22.580 align:middle line:84% So I've already read from my memoir. 00:00:22.580 --> 00:00:25.190 align:middle line:84% And my memoir's title was One More Theory About Happiness. 00:00:25.190 --> 00:00:29.750 align:middle line:84% And originally when I sold my memoir to Ecco, 00:00:29.750 --> 00:00:33.350 align:middle line:84% the title on the manuscript was just Paul Guest's Memoir, 00:00:33.350 --> 00:00:34.910 align:middle line:84% because I didn't have a title for it. 00:00:34.910 --> 00:00:41.190 align:middle line:84% And I sold this book of poems and a memoir at the time. 00:00:41.190 --> 00:00:43.970 align:middle line:84% And so they brought out this book of poems first. 00:00:43.970 --> 00:00:46.850 align:middle line:84% And so during the time I was working on the memoir, 00:00:46.850 --> 00:00:48.920 align:middle line:84% continuing to finish it, during that time 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:51.860 align:middle line:84% I would get emails from time to time from my editor saying, 00:00:51.860 --> 00:00:53.930 align:middle line:84% what's the title of your memoir, Paul? 00:00:53.930 --> 00:00:55.320 align:middle line:90% And I said like, I don't know. 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:57.870 align:middle line:84% Finally it came to be like, we've got to have a title. 00:00:57.870 --> 00:00:59.840 align:middle line:90% It's like, I really don't know. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:01.280 align:middle line:90% And I know it's my life. 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:03.350 align:middle line:90% But I don't really have an idea. 00:01:03.350 --> 00:01:07.070 align:middle line:84% And so I said, you guys can suggest some titles. 00:01:07.070 --> 00:01:10.760 align:middle line:90% And I'll see what I think. 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:12.230 align:middle line:90% And so they said OK. 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:14.450 align:middle line:84% And so about a week later, they came back. 00:01:14.450 --> 00:01:17.000 align:middle line:84% "Well, we really liked this title from a poem 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:17.998 align:middle line:90% from your last book. 00:01:17.998 --> 00:01:20.540 align:middle line:84% It's called, 'One More Theory About Happiness.'" I said like, 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:23.805 align:middle line:84% if you guys are OK with using the title twice, fine. 00:01:23.805 --> 00:01:25.430 align:middle line:84% And so this is the original poem that's 00:01:25.430 --> 00:01:27.374 align:middle line:84% called "One More Theory About Happiness." 00:01:27.374 --> 00:01:30.220 align:middle line:90% 00:01:30.220 --> 00:01:32.050 align:middle line:84% "One more theory about happiness, 00:01:32.050 --> 00:01:35.260 align:middle line:84% that it comes to you like an accident with a powder 00:01:35.260 --> 00:01:38.320 align:middle line:84% actuated nail gun, that it's wisdom 00:01:38.320 --> 00:01:41.680 align:middle line:84% of the sort you hear in line with your cargo of toothpaste, 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:45.760 align:middle line:84% detergent, condoms, salt, whatever has appeared 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:49.270 align:middle line:84% on the vacant horizon of the day like ink smudge, 00:01:49.270 --> 00:01:52.030 align:middle line:84% or birds on the wing from Mexico, 00:01:52.030 --> 00:01:54.640 align:middle line:84% that it multiplies with the mythic sexual frenzy 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:58.240 align:middle line:84% of the rabbit, which you regard now like Fellini played 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:02.290 align:middle line:84% backwards at half speed, that whole libraries to it 00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:05.830 align:middle line:84% are devoted like pious women in a foreign country, 00:02:05.830 --> 00:02:10.389 align:middle line:84% perhaps Spain, their white hair ignored, that you will reap it 00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:12.855 align:middle line:90% according to what you sow, 00:02:12.855 --> 00:02:14.230 align:middle line:84% that you will speak of it the way 00:02:14.230 --> 00:02:18.520 align:middle line:84% you remember an unread book, that you'll find it, 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:22.480 align:middle line:84% that in eternity your keys find you, 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:25.450 align:middle line:84% that desire is the cause of all human suffering 00:02:25.450 --> 00:02:29.740 align:middle line:84% according to Buddha, according to the man whose arms dead 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:32.290 align:middle line:84% end at the bulbs of his elbows, kicking 00:02:32.290 --> 00:02:36.850 align:middle line:84% a dog from the sidewalk with savage joy, 00:02:36.850 --> 00:02:40.180 align:middle line:84% that the dog in this matter has no say except to articulate 00:02:40.180 --> 00:02:43.720 align:middle line:84% miniature outrage, that it is better to have 00:02:43.720 --> 00:02:47.320 align:middle line:90% no arms than four legs." 00:02:47.320 --> 00:02:49.390 align:middle line:84% When I was in grad school in Illinois, 00:02:49.390 --> 00:02:55.810 align:middle line:84% I lived down the street from a grocery store called Schnucks. 00:02:55.810 --> 00:02:57.520 align:middle line:84% I always loved that name, Schnucks. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:02:59.500 align:middle line:84% And I would do my grocery shopping there. 00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:01.690 align:middle line:84% And then one day I was walking down the sidewalk 00:03:01.690 --> 00:03:03.930 align:middle line:90% to go to Schnucks and-- 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:06.965 align:middle line:84% I'm taking too much relish in saying Schnucks. 00:03:06.965 --> 00:03:08.590 align:middle line:84% I was walking to go get some groceries. 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:10.210 align:middle line:84% And on the other side of the street, 00:03:10.210 --> 00:03:13.660 align:middle line:84% a man was walking this way towards me. 00:03:13.660 --> 00:03:17.050 align:middle line:84% And as he got closer, I noticed that his arms 00:03:17.050 --> 00:03:18.940 align:middle line:90% ended at his elbows. 00:03:18.940 --> 00:03:23.290 align:middle line:90% And I kept on walking. 00:03:23.290 --> 00:03:25.780 align:middle line:84% And as he got closer, there was a dog, a young dog 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:27.280 align:middle line:90% laying on the sidewalk. 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:30.790 align:middle line:84% And as he got closer to the dog, without any sort of warning 00:03:30.790 --> 00:03:34.360 align:middle line:84% or provocation, he just sort of hauled off and kicked the dog 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:37.775 align:middle line:84% as hard as he could, for no reason, and just kept on going. 00:03:37.775 --> 00:03:39.650 align:middle line:84% And it's one of those things you think, like, 00:03:39.650 --> 00:03:41.177 align:middle line:90% did that just happen? 00:03:41.177 --> 00:03:42.510 align:middle line:90% But it was also really horrible. 00:03:42.510 --> 00:03:45.580 align:middle line:84% And so for years, I've really thought about that guy 00:03:45.580 --> 00:03:46.420 align:middle line:90% and wondered why? 00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:48.890 align:middle line:84% What possessed him to do that at that moment? 00:03:48.890 --> 00:03:51.220 align:middle line:90% And I don't know. 00:03:51.220 --> 00:03:53.160 align:middle line:90% I still don't know.