October 2008
2 posts
Being at Home with Our Homelessness →
Why we’re happier knowing our happiness is inseparable from our misery.
A Bailout on Life
NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand — It is the ultimate in second chances: a Buddhist temple here offers, for a small fee, an opportunity to die, rise up again newborn and make a fresh start in life.
Nine big pink coffins dominate the grand hall of the temple, and every day hundreds of people take their turns climbing in for a few moments as monks chant a dirge. Then, at a command, the visitors clamber out...
September 2008
1 post
Julian Barnes on "the secular modern heaven of...
Bumper stickers and fridge magnets remind us that Life Is Not a Rehearsal. We encourage one another towards the secular modern heaven of self-fulfillment: the development of the personality, the relationships which help define us, the status-giving job, the material goods, the ownership of property, the foreign holidays, the acquisition of savings, the accumulation of sexual exploits, the visits...
July 2008
4 posts
I saw my self like som Traveller
When I came into the Country, and saw that I had all time in my own hands, having devoted it wholy to the study of Felicitie, I knew not where to begin or End; nor what Objects to chuse, upon which most Profitably I might fix my Contemplation. I saw my self like som Traveller, that had Destined his Life to journeys, and was resolved to spend his Days in visiting Strange Places: who might wander in...
“It is not happiness that theodicy provides, but meaning.”
– Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (1967; rpt. NY: Anchor, 1969, 1990), p. 58. (via nbr)
"I want to be someone else"
Closing the heavy volume of Montaigne, The tall New Englander goes out Into an evening which exalts the fields. It is a pleasure no less than reading. He walks toward the final sloping of the sun, Toward the landscape’s gilded edge; He moves through darkening fields as he moves now Through the memory of the one who writes this down. He thinks: I have read the essential books And written other...
June 2008
26 posts
“All that is not happiness is alien to our disposition.”
– Encyclopédie Française, “Happiness”
During my teens, two members of my parents’ congregation died of cancer, despite all the prayers offered up on their behalf. When I looked at the congregants kneeling on cushions, their heads bent to touch the wooden pews, it seemed to me as if they were literally butting their heads against a palpable impossibility. And this was years before I discovered Samuel Butler’s image for the inutility of...
“It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right...”
– Jeremy Bentham, A Fragment on Government: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1776)
“Ich harre des Herrn, meine Seele harret,...
Resistance is futile (™) →
“For the millions of fans on our planet and beyond, our new line of STAR TREK urns, caskets, monuments and vaults will be an important discovery indeed.”
“The only orthodox object of the institution of government is to secure the...”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to F. A. van der Kemp, 22 March 1812
Look to the end
“Croesus,” replied Solon, “I know God is envious of human prosperity and likes to trouble us; and you question me about the lot of man. Listen then: […] The total of days for your seventy years is 26,250, and not a single one of them is like the next in what it brings. You can see from that, Croesus, that man is entirely a creature of chance. You seem to be very rich, and...
On the grass under the open sky
Not more than a yard from me lay a homeless wanderer; in the rooms of the hostels and by the carts in the courtyard among the pilgrims some hundreds of such homeless wanderers were waiting for the morning, and further away, if one could picture to oneself the whole of Russia, a vast multitude of such uprooted creatures was pacing at that moment along highroads and side-tracks, seeking something...
Singing and mirth fill the house
For now the floor is clean, the hands of all and the cups are clean; one puts on the woven garlands, another passes around the fragrant ointment in a vase the mixing bowl stands full of good cheer, and more wine, mild and of delicate bouquet, is at hand in jars, which says it will never fail. In the midst frankincense sends forth its sacred fragrance, and there is water, cold, and sweet, and pure;...
“…two most wicked spirits rising, with forks in their hands, one of them...”
– An unrepentant servant of the Mercian king Ethelred. (Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England 5.13)
“…that one great object toward which the labor, vigilance, and industry of...”
– Augustine on the blessed life (City of God 8.3)
Who shall comprehend?
…is not man’s heart, do you not suppose, “an abyss”? For what is there more profound than that “abyss”? Men may speak, may be seen by the operations of their members, may be heard speaking in conversation: but whose thought is penetrated, whose heart seen into? What he is inwardly engaged on, what he is inwardly capable of, what he is inwardly doing or what purposing, what he is inwardly...
Office pools lead to unhappiness →
“All men desire to lead in this world a happy life. That life is led most...”
– Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity 1.10.1
The lofty and towering structure of the virtues
Come now, my dear Lucius, build in your imagination the lofty and towering structure of the virtues; then you will feel no doubt that those who achieve them, guiding themselves by magnanimity and uprightness, are always happy; realizing as they do that all the vicissitudes of fortune, the ebb and flow of time and of circumstance, will be trifling and feeble if brought into conflict with virtue....
The happy man can never become miserable
If activities are, as we said, what gives life its character, no happy man can become miserable; for he will never do the acts that are hateful and mean. For the man who is truly good and wise, we think, bears all the chances life becomingly and always makes the best of circumstances, as a good general makes the best military use of the army at his command and a good shoemaker makes the best shoes...
The happy life is joy based on the truth
Far be it from me, Lord, far from the heart of your servant who is making confession to you, far be it from me to think myself happy, whatever be the joy in which I take my delight. There is a delight which is given not to the wicked, but to those who worship you for no reward save the joy that you yourself are to them. That is the authentic happy life, to set one’s joy on you, grounded in you...
Whether the happy life is in the memory
When at we least remember ourselves to have forgotten, we have not totally forgotten. But if we have completely forgotten, we cannot even search for what has been lost. How then am I to seek for you, Lord? When I seek for you, my God, my quest is for the happy life. I will seek you that “my soul may live,” for my body derives life from my soul, and my soul derives life from you. How then shall...
Have a taste
This tyrant, however, showed himself how happy he really was; for once, when Damocles, one of his flatterers, was dilating in conversation on his forces, his wealth, the greatness of his power, the plenty he enjoyed, the grandeur of his royal palaces, and maintaining that no one was ever happier, “Have you an inclination,” said he, “Damocles, as this kind of life pleases you, to have a taste of it...
A professor of unhappiness
Antiphon came to Socrates with the intention of drawing his companions away from him, and spoke thus in their presence. “Socrates, I supposed that philosophy must add to one’s store of happiness. But the fruits you have reaped from philosophy are apparently very different. For example, you are living a life that would drive even a slave to desert his master. Your meat and drink are of the...
Happiness and its component parts
Men, individually and in common, nearly all have some aim, in the attainment of which they choose or avoid certain things. This aim, briefly stated, is happiness and its component parts. Therefore, for the sake of illustration, let us ascertain what happiness, generally speaking, is, and what its parts consist in; for all who exhort or dissuade discuss happiness and the things which conduce or are...
“…the great enemy of human quiet, the polluter of the feast of happiness,...”
– Samuel Johnson on the fear of death (Sermon 25, composed after the death of his wife on 17 March 1752)
May 2008
27 posts
This loaned life
My heart was impelled on the forth-way, waited for in each longing-while. For me now life’s hope: that I may seek that victory-beam alone more often than all men, honor it well. My desire for that is much in mind, and my hope of protection reverts to the rood. I have not now many strong friends on this earth; they forth hence have departed from world’s joys, have sought themselves...
Men neede no more contentiously to strive for...
By this discourse and mappe, is to be scene, the valiante courages of men in this later age within these eighty yeares, that have so muche enlarged the boundes of the worlde, that now we have twice and thrice so muche scope for oure earthlie peregrination, as we have hadde in times past, so that nowe men neede no more contentiously to strive for roume to build an house on, or for a little turffe...
I dream a highway back to you
Step into the light, poor Lazarus Don’t lie alone behind the window shade Let me see the mark death made I dream a highway back to you. I dream a highway back to you. What will sustain us through the winter? Where did last year’s lessons go? Walk me out into the rain and snow I dream a highway back to you. Oh I dream a highway back to you love A winding ribbon with a band of gold A...
Join your prayers with mine
This, my dear Sir, is the last day of a very sickly and melancholy year. Join your prayers with mine, that the next may be more happy to us both. I hope the happiness which I have not found in this world, will by infinite mercy be granted in another. [Samuel Johnson, letter to Rev. Dr. Taylor, 31 Dec. 1782]
Account yourself desolate in this world
It becomes you, therefore, out of love to this true life, to account yourself “desolate” in this world, however great the prosperity of your lot may be. For as that is the true life, in comparison with which the present life, which is much loved, is not worthy to be called life, however happy and prolonged it be, so is it also the true consolation promised by the Lord in the words of Isaiah, “I...
Today I saw oranges
What do I care that the wretched bassoonist squeaks in the orchestra, or that the Italians do not genuinely enjoy either painting or music, or anything else? I enjoy them quite enough myself, and there are more divine things here than one can grasp in a lifetime. And so the bad music disturbs me very little; though for the sake of truth I must confess that it is really bad. So with one thing and...
We were glad
So, after the sore torments of the route:— Toothache, and headache, and the ache of wind, And huddled sleep, and smarting wakefulness, And night, and day, and hunger sick at food, And twentyfold relays, and packages To be unlocked, and passports to be found, And heavy well-kept landscape;—we were glad Because we entered Brussels in the sun. [Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “A Trip to Paris and...
“The people who are sharing the raft on your course through life’s rapids,...”
– Clive James
Photo Exhibit Shows Happy People Under Nazi Rule →
The peace of the reasonable creatures
Even the heavenly city, therefore, while in its state of pilgrimage, avails itself of the peace of earth, and, so far as it can without injuring faith and godliness, desires and maintains a common agreement among men regarding the acquisition of the necessaries of life, and makes this earthly peace bear upon the peace of heaven; for this alone can be truly called and esteemed the peace of the...
Unlean against our hearts
If it please God, let less happen. Even out Earth’s rondure, flatten Eiger, blanden the Grand Canyon. Make valleys slightly higher, widen fissures to arable land, remand your terrible glaciers and silence their calving, halving or doubling all geographical features toward the mean. Unlean against our hearts. Withdraw your grandeur from these parts. [Kay Ryan, “Blandeur”]
All things are flowing and gliding away
But today we have sung, “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion.” Observe “the waters of Babylon.” “The waters of Babylon” are all things which here are loved, and pass away. One man, for example, loves to practise husbandry, to grow rich thereby, to employ his mind therein, thence to gain pleasure: let him observe the issue, and...
“If you wish to be armed against temptations in this world, let longing for the...”
– Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms 137.13