Exuberance

Kay Redfield Jamison has written an interesting new book called Exuberance: The Passion for Life (Knopf). Here's part of an interview with her this month in Elle.

KRJ: As I see it, exuberance is about optimism, about the future -- trying to do something that hasn't been done before. Happiness is a more satisfied and passive, less-future oriented state. Joy is less high energy and usually shorter-lived. It's been viewed more in the context of religion.

Elle Interviewer: You suggest in your book that exuberance is part of America's natural character -- the pioneer's urge to cross the continent, whatever the odds, and all that.

KRJ: Exactly. Happiness is sitting in the drawing rooms of London -- not crossing the ocean in the first place.