-------- Forwarded message -------- Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 13:39:34 -0600 From: "Paul S. Hetrick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (jeff owens) Subject: Re: In Pursuit of Happiness (long book review) > Myth 1 - Happiness is easy. It is, or can be easy. The trouble is chasing what we think will bring us happiness more often than not causes us to run in the wrong direction and scramble over hurdles needlessly. Thinking it is inherently difficult makes it so. > Myth 2 - You can buy happiness. Indeed you can, and the price is high. You just cannot buy it with cash. > Myth 3 - Happiness is simplicity itself. While trying to explain my personal flavor of voluntary simplicity, I have come to the conclusion that �simplicity' is hard to define and harder to find. For me growing my own chickens is �simple'. Most people I know consider it far simpler to buy their's at a store. IMO, they fail to consider how much of their lives they give up to earn the money to buy it at the store. So what is �simplicity'? Complexities are inherent roadblocks on the path to happiness. Simplicity may not be happiness, but it can be one of the best tools for finding it. > Myth 4 - Happiness is immoral. Many of the things modern society teaches up will lead to happiness lead to immoral actions instead. Happiness on a large scale, i.e. creating a system where everybody can be happy, is perhaps the highest moral obligation. > Myth 5 - Happiness is madness. To those who have never experienced true happiness, but only pleasure, happiness may indeed seem to be madness. As a corollary, I have met some people who were mad by any common definition who were truly happy. > Myth 6 - Happiness is elsewhere. True happiness is within, but the better environment one lives in, the better the chances are that one can look inside to find the true path. For me the best place for my body to be while my mind searches is in the most rural place I can find. For others it might be in a dirty inner city alley, but each of us has a place that fits our inclinations somewhere. > Myth 7 - Happiness is your birthright. If by �birthright' one means something granted without revocation, then we have no birthrights. The only right we have is to demand and defend what we feel should be our rights. In that sense, happiness may not be out birthright, but the closest thing to it is our right to pursue happiness. > Myth 8 - Happiness is fixed. Happiness, to me, is,--or comes from,---an understanding of reality. Once truly gained it is no more likely to be lost than any other knowledge or philosophical understanding. ==>paul
