74 bar steady 29.94 ompn SE dew-point 62 sunrise 6:17 sunset 8:16 Lughnasa
Full Corn Moon
“Men who seek happiness are like drunkards who can never find their house but are sure that they have one.” – Voltaire
In Los Angeles Story, Steve Martin has one of the great opening moments in cinema. He drives into a planned community, tie undone and looking exhausted after a long work day. In his hand the garage remote points at house after house, all the same, on and on and on, all gray, all with the same front porch, the same roofline, the same front yard and driveway.
Contrary to the positive psychology movement I agree with Voltaire that happiness, if it comes, arrives in moments and as the adjunct of other activity, never as a realized objective. Happiness as a pursuit has a futile, desparate air, intimating that life without it has less, is less. I don’t believe that. Think of Viktor Frankl, creater of logotherapy, who maintained a sense of purpose while in the concentration camps. Or, Anne Frank, hidden, yet living. Imagine those times in your life when happiness has eluded you, were those times less worthwhile than those when happiness came easily?
To seek happiness demeans the reality and integrity of the total human experience. If it comes, let it come. If it does not, we live on anyway.
Outside work today so I need to get going. See you soon.
