A decade ago, I went out to an art show. Visiting my uncle in Vienna, Austria, I took a break from Metaxa-fueled family video marathons for a trip to “The Happy Show,” a traveling installation I caught at the city’s Museum of Applied Arts, headed by Austrian artist Stefan Sagmeister. Malleable mind that I was, the preponderance of infographics and interactive showcases stuck with me. The questions at the show’s heart were simple, but worth asking at every opportunity. What makes us happiest? Beyond a syrupy, 1950s advertisement or 1960s aspirational slogan, the showcase sought to be scientific. How much money do the happiest people make? What traits and life choices do the happiest people share? Is happiness how we should define success?
I won’t be calculating Luis Castillo’s f-joie (de vivre), but The Rock is who my mind drifts to in concert with these questions. Castillo will be entering his fifth season in Seattle in 2026, his penultimate guaranteed in the five year, $108 million extension he inked just months after being traded to Seattle from the Cincinnati Reds. Castillo’s been yeomanlike for the M’s, making 106 regular season starts in his three and a half seasons in Northwest Green. The sizzle has settled, and while Castillo’s dreads defiantly resist nature’s beckoning call to gray – he’s only 33 years old, after all – the Dominican no longer helms Seattle’s staff.