"Super Mini Literature Award" about happiness, my answer is...

2022.04.22 Launch of Matters

I only noticed the news of this literary award because of the information shared by my friends on FB. At that time, there was only half a month left before the deadline. I was hesitant at first, but I decided to give it a try. I didn’t want to be caught by any reviewers. I just thought that I could post another article in Matters, so I wrote it (heh

 [Super Mini Literature Award X Taiwan Morinaga] 30 minutes writing practice >>>def happiness (birth: this moment)

The epidemic in 2021 has deeply affected people's hearts, and many people have lost happiness and hope for the future in their lives; in 2022, Literary Magazine and Taiwan's Morinaga jointly collaborated to plan an album with "happiness" as the main axis.
Except for the five multiple-choice questions, the rest of the questionnaire are open-ended questions and answers, intended to endow the questionnaire with the particularity and symbolism of literary creation. Readers are welcome to answer the reasons behind each question in detail. Perhaps in the process of asking yourself "why", it is to explore the unique writing experience of personal life and values.

Because of this activity, many issues that have not been thought about in depth have the first self-talk, and the writing process is once again to relieve worries and sort out.

Three days before the deadline, the official website of the event posted the happy answers of several writers. I suddenly felt that my answers seemed fake (?), and at one time it seemed like I was writing an essay, but I still didn’t mean to make major changes (also said

The title is a 30-minute writing exercise. It took me several 30 minutes to answer all the questions, and the slow writing is well deserved.

This article belongs to the answers of 20+ cats. Maybe in a few years, the answers will be completely different.
When it comes to happiness, my answer is...

1. Which generation do you belong to?
20+

2. What is your gender?
female

3. Color is a silent person with rich expressions. When it comes to happiness, what color do you think of?
pink

4. Taste is like a giant building of memories. What taste do you think can represent your current life and age?
The first time I taste it, I feel bitter, but after a long time, I slowly taste the so-called sweetness, which is like the lingering fragrance of tea.
(Looking at the shortlist, most of the 20+ generations of works answered sour, bitter, and spicy, but my answer seemed abrupt(?))

5. If the following flavors were made into delicious milk candies, which flavors would you be willing to buy?
Not durian jackfruit and other fruits, should be acceptable

6. When and where did you first come into contact with milk sugar? What happy stories and memories do you have?
A reward from a monthly elementary school exam. In that exam, the teacher rewarded the students not a good baby collection point card, nor a pencil eraser, but a box of red bean milk candy. And I'm one of those lucky enough to be rewarded.

Being able to taste such sweetness is not only a proof of good grades, but also a rare and precious little fortune. For sugar, my mother has strict control, even if she longs for a taste of sweetness, she just stares blankly. That box of red bean milk candy is regarded as the most precious treasure by me. I am reluctant to swallow it in one breath. I always keep it in my mouth, enjoying the aroma of red beans and milk slowly melting in my mouth, so that the taste buds can be immersed in the thick but not greasy. In the sweetness of happiness.

7. Held five consecutive meetings/taken five consecutive exams. When I was exhausted, I heard bursts of grunts. I couldn't tell whether it was a muttering in a trance or a phantom in a dream... Ah... It turned out that I was hungry... At this moment, what would you eat? Food heals body and mind?
Come to a bowl of eel pasta. The thin, soft and tender white noodles paired with smooth eel are the most healing. Eating is a kind of reward, comfort, and more of a memory and luxury.

When I was young, a bowl of 70 yuan eel pasta was a high price for my frugal mother. On a few occasions, when my brother was late from school and rushed to cram school, the bowl of eel pasta would replace my mother's homemade dinner as my brother's main meal. My brother also knows that this is a high-priced delicacy, and he will always share some with my younger sister. That bowl of noodles has become a common memory of the two brothers and sisters.

Now out of the society, eel pasta has already risen to 110 yuan a bowl. When you eat noodles in restaurants, you no longer count the change in your pocket, but order a bowl without hesitation, sprinkle with seven-flavored powder and eat it with a big mouthful. Eat the love of food, and the love of mothers for children when they were young.

8. Live well without it, but feel happy with it. Whether it is the time for office workers to order drinks at 3 p.m., the day when students secretly order drinks at noon, or the company of a glass of wine and music before going to bed, what kind of drinks/alcohols make you happy?
Boba milk tea is lukewarm and sugar-free, it must be 50 Lan. Coming from the ancient capital of Tainan, I have a sweet taste for nature. Until Bei Piao saw my current boyfriend, I gave up sugary drinks and drank sugar-free milk tea that I used to find unpalatable and tasteless.

The cup of milk tea tasted delicious after a long time. Without the cover-up of too much sugar, the tea aroma and milk taste of the drink are in a harmonious balance, without being too bitter or overly pretentious with creamer, plus the soul-filled boba powder balls, slightly warm without burning your mouth, and more It shows the chewy taste of Boba. This kind of taste is exactly the portrayal of feelings along the way.

As for why it is 50 Lan? In addition to the unanimous praise from her boyfriend, Lan is the name of the hero in the story I created.

9. Imagine being in your favorite natural scenery, which can be mountains, seas, forests, endless grasslands, or any scenery you cherish. There is a breeze blowing, what smells do you smell at this time?
It is a fresh and long-lasting fragrance, accompanied by the gentle wind, blowing through the tips of the hair, brushing the cheeks, and gently drifting into the heart along the tip of the nose.

I often mistake it for the fragrance of magnolia flowers. After the fragrance circles around me again, I realize that it is my mother's favorite fragrance of osmanthus.

Planting a pot of sweet-scented osmanthus has always been my mother's wish. Whenever the flowers bloom, the sweet-scented osmanthus on the branches emits a ray of fragrance, and on her youthful face with a warm smile like the sun, I realize that it is the most innocent appearance of my mother.

10. Before the end comes, put on your headphones and listen to the last song. Which song can make you leave with a smile?
Have a toast with the memories of you and me, respect the sweetness made by the years, laugh about the past friendship, and forget the past grievances with a smile. At the end of the day, no matter whether you are on Noah's Ark or not, you should say thank you to those who have been in your life.

"Drink another cup forever, drink it and you will live forever, year after year and year after year." - Mayday "Cheers"

11. If you had an opportunity to redecorate your room, what color of happiness would you like to paint the walls? If the existing white wall is a kind of pure happiness, add some gradient powder rendered by watercolor to make happiness more dreamy, just like the expectation of happiness when I was a child, soft, sweet, and beautiful, and that Such an innocent nature, as if she was still a girl.

12. Regarding love, what kind of picture or scene imagined in your mind makes you feel truly happy?
An unprepared torrential rain forced him to be trapped downstairs in the company. Looking at the non-stop rain, I was thinking whether to run back in the rain or wait for the rain to stop, when the mobile phone message suddenly popped up "I'll pick you up", I didn't have to decline or think about whether it would be too much trouble for the other party, then A figure appeared in front of her eyes, carrying the umbrella for a date.

It turns out that there really is such a thing as a soulmate; it turns out that being remembered by someone can be a kind of happiness to be commemorated.

13. Please use a book/movie to represent your definition of happiness?
"Believe that something good will happen today"

Believe that you will meet happiness today. You can have it in just one thought, I believe it is so miraculous.

Human beings do not break away from the movement of the universe. The Law of Murphy and the Law of Attraction are roughly in the same vein. Turning the corner, whether you encounter love or obstacles, your heart can decide.

It doesn’t matter what kind of good things happen to you. The aunt at the breakfast shop has an extra sip of soy sauce, the green lights on the way to work, and the Starbucks that you share with your colleagues. It will be all right.

14. Continuing from the previous question, turn to page 18 of this book, what is the first line of the first paragraph? / What is your favorite movie line? "The value of creation lies in originality. Before becoming a writer, you must first have your own unique spiritual world, which is difficult to learn from others."

The essence of creation cannot be imitated. Even if you copy other people's writing style throughout the text, you will not feel the resilience of life, and you will not be able to read sincere words, let alone bring happiness to readers.

I have not yet been able to support the substantial weight of a "writer", and the burden of "making" a "home" is really overloaded. I just write, talk to myself, sort out my emotions, occasionally break away from reality, switch to another fictional story, put aside my secular identity, write to my heart's content, and make myself happy.

If my words can touch people, it will be a great happiness.

15. Among the animations you have watched, which one makes you feel the happiest?
Spanish short animation "Alike". At the end, the son, who was about to turn gray and pale, saw his father imitating the appearance of a street musician playing the violin under the blossoming tree, and gradually recovered his smile. The father felt the son's lost and regained enthusiasm, and he also recovered his color.

Happiness may be like this, spending life in a boring life, and then finding the long-lost star jar at the bottom of the abyss. Maybe I have forgotten how to fold those stars, but I seem to have found the purest beauty in the past, holding it carefully in the palm of my hand.

16. If you had a book on happiness, what would be the top three on your list?
A healthy love, a detached house, a purring cat.

Healthy love is a kind of reciprocity, a kind of commitment, and we can share with each other whether we are happy or sad. With this basic happiness, we can live together in a detached house where there is no rent from the landlord and no interference from neighbors, holding a cat, white cat, black cat or tabby cat, sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, listening to the purring sound of the cat , have a drink and watch the colorful sunset.

17. When and where was your happiest moment?
There is no happiest, only happier. "Most" is a kind of top limit. Happiness should not have a limit, but an endless stream.

When I was a child, I ate a piece of chocolate ice cream, and I got family-level happiness. When I grew up, I received a bouquet of Jinsha flowers from my boyfriend, and I got world-class happiness. Therefore, happiness can be accumulated and become bigger and bigger.

18. What do you think is the most perfect happiness?
Happiness does not need to be sought outside, nor does it need to be deliberately created. It can be a simple and ordinary thing. A bowl of hot soup for supper, an ice cream to satisfy the gluttony, or a good night before going to bed can all be small but precious happiness.

The most perfect happiness is to be grateful and cherish. The mediocrity of the secular world can easily confuse people's hearts. Only by resting in one's own heart, being grateful for the tranquility of daily life, cherishing everything that exists, reducing the obsession to win, and making happiness flow more smoothly.

19. Which characteristic of yourself makes you happiest?
Appropriate fashion is stupid, pretending that you don't know that you will eat dirt at the end of the month, that you don't know that someone hates you, and you don't know where you put your glasses, so you can't see clearly on purpose.

Too often thinking about things that cannot be solved is a kind of self-disturbance. Literati are always sentimental, so they cut off their sensitive nerves, refuse to receive any messages and calls, like a lazy cat, lying on the ground, lazily basking in the sun. Others laugh at me for being too soft, and I laugh at others for being too busy.

20. What would you do to reduce your sadness and make you feel happy?
Writing is a kind of immersive happiness, and it is the ultimate enjoyment. In the undisturbed study room, pick a warm lamp, let your heart follow the words on the blank word page, and slowly bring out the most sincere self. The secular surface is no longer pretending at this moment. No pretense required.

Let the text become a life partner, get rid of the tangled worries, and suddenly open up the heart, which is a kind of freedom and happiness.

21. How would you like to die the happiest?
It is to go to sleep quietly and quietly, free from illness, pain, and worries, and successfully unload the burden of life. The moment the eyes were closed, the soul left the body and turned into a ray of breeze, following the white light of the bright moon, went to the vast grassland that he had longed for before his death.

There is no follow-up to the questionnaire. (meaning make persistent efforts)

There will be another round of reader voting for the 10 selected works, and the final 5 winning works will be selected. I haven't read everyone's answers carefully, but I just glanced at it vaguely, and it seems that most of the 20+ generations (?)

Vote here (until 4/24, up to three votes per person): [Super Mini Literature Award X Taiwan Morinaga] 30-minute writing practice >>> DEF Happiness (Birth: Now)・March 2022