We find with friends, colleagues and each other (one of us is 71, the other 83), increased happiness is often related to forgetting pain, humiliation, disappointment, loss and even fear.
The Spirit of Christmas Past (Johanna Morrison), who makes her entrance in a holly-draped sleigh pulled by children wearing red, shows Scrooge the forgotten pains and joys of his youth.
As much as you are trying to forget the pain, pain doesn't seem to ever want to forget you.
With the Olympics bringing renewed attention to China, it can be easy to forget the pain that went before, pain that occurred in living memory.
On the subject of childbirth, for instance, a review of studies conducted before 2000, concluded that women do not completely forget labour pain – or the intensity of the pain they experienced.
Moreover, a participant said that it was better to forget the pain so that she could live happily as a healthy person: "I have ignored the (eye, face and chin) pain.
"People say you forget the pain.
"When I meet people, I forget the pain.
But I forget my pain while I'm taking the pictures".
