Reckless and happy vs. Conservative and dull

Sometimes, a simple observation like seeing the guy who works at the town dump smoking a cigarette and holding a Dunkin' Donuts coffee can spark a deeper question of philosophy. That is, does it pay to be excessively careful with your life and risk ever feeling contented, or is it better to live life on the edge and perhaps die early, but happy?

This seems like a classic debate to me, so no right answer. But this guy today was clearly satisfied, at least at the moment. You could see it in him. Cigarettes cause cancer, and coffee, while not a hazard in and of itself, is not exactly health food. Who knows? It could have been this guy's fifth cup of the day?

There are many things that people do that aren't socially acceptable, like riding a motorcycle without a helmet, or riding a motorcycle in the first place, overeating, gambling, spending too much on your credit card, whatever. Yet, these things can yield happiness to people. Critics to my theory would of course say they bring temporary happiness. But I would argue that many people are never, or possibly only occasionally, happy, and this is possibly because they live too carefully, too boringly. Most everyone lives this way, sometimes, but maybe we should be this way less often.

It seems that people either need to give in to some wicked thoughts now and then, or change their idea of happiness and maybe not kid themselves that acting politically correct all the time or eating salmon and brown rice nightly is very fun.