Flow

I need to reread Mihaly Csikczentmihalyi's book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" but my recollection is that one of the author's basic premises is that happy people do what they love. He describes flow as "a state of consciousness so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity." The result is "optimal experience", which Csikczentmihalyi asserts is a key element in sustained happiness. People tend to allow themselves to be engrossed in what they are doing when it is something they do for its own sake; when they are doing what they would want to do if they could be doing anything. For most, that is something other than what they do for a living; hence the plethora of job-related jokes intended to make those that share these moments of "humor" believe they have found a ray of respite in an otherwise dreary environment. I believe the author's contention is right on the mark and reflected in the expressions or "nuggets of wisdom" all-too-rarely shared or passed over with the briefest of nods when read on the header of one's daytimer (non-pda versions). "Do what you love, the money will follow"...also the name of a book I believe, but serves as a good example. The simple truth is that people will naturally do their best at doing what they really love to do to keep themselves occupied. I suppose one should add the caveat that sitting on the couch watching television is questionable in terms of an "occupation"; I think what we are talking about is some sort of productivity. Optimal experience also has something to do with achievement.

Today's image also has something to do with flow...a fair bit, actually. The green crystals on this specimen are fluorite, which gets its name from the Latin fluere, "to flow", in allusion to this mineral's use as a flux. Chemically, this mineral is calcium fluoride, the latter meaning that this compound has the element fluorine in it. "Fluorine" and, by extension, "fluoride" are in turn derived from the name of this mineral, as is the word "fluorescence". Materials that produce visible light when excited by ultraviolet radiation are said to fluoresce and this property was first discovered in fluorite crystals.
Oddly---or perhaps not---flowstone is not related at all to fluorite but rather to the rocks seen in last Friday's image...but that is another story entirely...and there aren't any light bulbs named after it.