Bahia or Bust: PART TWO In Which Our Heroine Finds Herself Falling Into Every Cultural Imperialist- and Chick Flick/Lit-Cliche in the Book

IN our last chapter,Bahia or Bust, I explained the genesis of my fascination with Brasil. Here, the fascination takes root.

The last place anyone would expect to get bored would be a successful international art and erotica publisher. But circa 2005, that was me. My job was to hunt down world-class celebrities (politicians, spiritual leaders, actors, athletes and rock stars from the 1960's onward), convince them to participate in our project,

then ship enormous pages of a book (literally the size of a coffee table) for them to autograph, while ensuring those precious signed pages came back  in one piece. It was fun, but not entirely engaging my creative side. I needed an outlet.

Bahia or Bust: PART ONE Beats, Beauty and Brazil

Lots of us, if we are lucky or willing enough to admit it, experience some sort of irrational affection for a place we know nothing about. Just the sound of the name of the place, one photo in an encyclopedia or on a travel poster is like a beacon, a promise. Some put it down to a past life association that manifests in this life in inexplicable ways: Mr. B suffers from a near total lack of direction, but when in Bangkok he always knew exactly where he was on the labyrinthian streets he'd never once visited before. For instance.

The brain is very happy when you're focused on LOVE

"The brain is very happy when you're focused on what you LOVE. The more you focus on what you truly love and desire, the volume gets turned down in those parts of the limbic system where the destructive emotions of fear, anger, depression & anxiety are controlled. This allows you to think more clearly." ~ Neuroscientists @University of Pennsylvania's Center for Spirituality.

Happiness: It's in the Bag

Hedonic adjustment: just a fancy way of saying that the things that make you happy right now probably won't 5 minutes, 5 days and especially 5 months from now. I know full well of the theory that humans are wired to acclimate to the highs of new sources of happiness, until they wear off completely and we are forced to go out looking for something else to get us Up. I'm well familiar with it. And on a mission to move beyond it as best I can, in fact. But in the meantime, I'm on one of those hedonic highs; so let me introduce you to the current cause.