Tag: happy

‘How To Be Happy Though Human,

 

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“f we want to know what happiness is we must seek it, not as if it were a part of gold at the end of the rainbow, but among human beings who are living richly and fully the good life. If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double Dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar gold button that has rolled under the cupboard in his bed room. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living 24 crowded hours of the day. If you live only for yourself you are always an immediate danger of being bored to death with the repetition of your own views and interests. No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellowmen. If your ambition has the momentum of an express train at full speed, if you can no longer stop your mad rush for glory, power, or intellectual supremacy, try to divert your energies into socially useful channels before it is too late.
For those who seek the larger happiness and greater effectiveness open to human beings there can be but one philosophy of life, a philosophy of constructive altruism. The truly happy man is always a fighting optimist. Optimism includes not only altruism but also social responsibility, social courage and objectivity. The good life demands a working philosophy as an orientating map of conduct. This is the golden way of life. This is the satisfying life. This is the way to be happy though human.”

 

-W. Beran Wolfe, ‘How To Be Happy Though Human, 1932

 

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What do people most want to know about other people?

I have not carried out a survey so I shall write about what I would like to know.I’d like to know what makes you happy.I hope you are happy often.And if not what do you do.So,for me. I feel happy when I have completed some task and have a sense of achievement because then I can relax and sit staring into space because staring into space makes me feel happy.And if there is a tree there,even  better.I like to sit with maybe music but no talk.I like not to talk.If I am not happy,I do whatever I need to do as slowly and carefully as I can.And  think what I’d say to another person who felt like that:It’s alright to be sad.Be sad but don’t wallow in it.Then I’d make some tea and listen to Die Winterreisse which is very sad but it makes me feel happy…perhaps it expresses what I can’t express.

I like tea more than coffee and I like home made bread made in someone else’s home.
I am no good at sewing but I like turning up hems because using my hands makes me happy too.I would like to do more with my hands.I believe that is good for the brain.

I like going out at dusk when people put on the lights and I stare into their windows to see how they have decorated their rooms.So don’t pull the curtains,please.Is it legal?I am surprised how bare some rooms are..

I like helping blind people across the road as long as that is what they want.

I don’t like it when men push me or let doors close when I am going through.At Christmas people get very aggressive shopping;

I  used to like hearing people quote adages like

There’s many a true word spoken in jest

but I don’t think people say  such things now…. more like

What the hell are you doing playing ball in the street?

And who says now:

I am in the doldrums  [from the Ancient Mariner]

Or even,

To be or not to be.,                  That is bad for my digestion

Is this a dagger I see before me?

No,it’s the potato peeler.