i don’t know, but please don’t let it be Donald Trump.
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Sounds maybe like Lincoln, except I know he didn’t act happy. I’m going to go with Fred Rogers.
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A former Stoic? Or former Neitzchean?
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Nice inspiration and all, but I really hate how quotes like this ignore the sufferings of those with chronic depression. And no, prayer doesn’t cure cancer, either.
ETA: Not directed at you @Lucy_Gothro. Just the concept that many healthy people promote. Sure, it can work for the “doldrums”, but healthy people like to push this idea the way rich people tell poor people their station in life is their own fault.
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Listen here take my advice,
Make sure you got no lice,
Get yerself all smellin’ nice,
Try to straighten out yer eyes
Haul yer boots up over yer pants,
Take yer partner out to dance
’cause now you got the chance
and ’tis just as well to be ‘appy.
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My happiness and sadness are indeed independent of external circumstances. That’s what depression does. I’m still depressed even when I’m at my happiest.
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I have major clinical depression. I like the quote, not only because I figured out a way to apply it to myself (she’s not saying, Oh just forget it, blah blah blah), but also because it wasn’t made by some old rich white old guy with a couple of degrees behind him. Or by any man, actually. It was made by a woman who was basically forced to give up who she was to become something she never had imagined becoming.
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Ah, I added at the same time you posted.
The more I consider my father, the more I think this might have been a major contributing factor in my mother’s suicide.
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You mean ableism? Yeah, I know. And we’ll never know how mentally/emotionally healthy Catherine was, either. Each to their own…
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I went to an exhibit about her once – everything from official portraits to personal possessions. The item that touched me the most was the children’s textbook she wrote herself, each page with the same text in multiple languages.
It was easy to get an idea of Catherine the politician, Catherine the leader, Catherine who transformed herself from a German princess to the mother of Russia (and probably saved the monarchy there for a few generations). Catherine the person, not so sure.
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…are the operative words here, I think. I’m not sure what philosophy she ended up adopting, but her life was both great and rather horrifying.
I’ve dealt with both depression and cancer, and my worry, of course, is that both tend to be recurring. About the only tactic I’ve come up with is just to deal with these as best as I can. Maybe I’ll succeed, maybe I won’t - for both afflictions, the worst case outcome is the same.
However, that’s the same outcome all of us will face anyway, so…
Dealing with affliction as well as possible may best be described as adopting an attitude of grace under fire. You may go down anyway, and there’s no shame in that, but you will go down fighting until you no longer have the strength. Human strength has limits, so there’s no shame in coming up against yours either.
I’ve come to the conclusion, however, that the pursuit of happiness is a delusion. The lives of even “normal, healthy” people (whoever they may be) are marked by tragedy and disappointment as well as personal triumphs and comfort: this is part of being alive. A belief in the pursuit of happiness is probably responsible for so many people assuming that unchecked consumption will achieve this goal. (Sufficiency would be a saner goal, and one that should be politically and economically achievable for everyone.)
Happiness, when it does happen, is, well… a happy accident. Perhaps an opportunity arises where you can make a difference, and you stand there grinning - “I done good today!” Perhaps you leave home with a blank mind, and it dawns on you how particularly glorious the day and the surroundings are. That’s the thing: happiness, when it happens, is the last thing on your mind. I think the prerequisite is that you have to be a bit outside of yourself to give it a place to take root.
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Call nothing thine, except thy soul.
Love not what thou art, but only what thou may become.
Do not pursue pleasure, for thou might have the misfortune of overtaking it.
Look always forward: in last year’s nests, there are no birds this year.
Be just to all men, and courteous to all women
Live life always in the vision of she for whom great deeds are done: her name is Dulcinea.
-from Man of La Mancha
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Nice!
I think “contentment” or “engaged” is a better goal than “happiness.” A life that works; happiness is a side benefit. I don’t think it’s possible to be happy for more than a limited amount of time anyway.
Humor helps.
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This seems apposite…
Alborada del Gracioso
(How Don Quixote might have sung of himself to Dulcinea)
for Vicki
“ Ecco Aurora con se aurata fronte…"
Giovanni Gabrieli
When first I laid eyes on you,
you were standing, as you do now,
on your balcony, framed by the rising sun
- yes, standing there in its very heart -
and I saw that, as a painting will overshadow its frame,
so too did you outshine the sun itself.
I, whose limbs the winter’s frost had stiffened,
I was rejuvenated in that light,
and, like an old tree at a spring day’s dawn,
felt the sap rise in me again and quicken,
and I blossomed
- yes, I blossomed -
and I knew that, old and gnarled as I was,
I too could bear fruit.
Now,
do you blame me that I would wish to share that fruit with you,
its “onliest begetter”?
Dreams and purposes I had thought lost forever
I have found again,
found alive and growing, branching out to reach heights
I had not thought possible
- yes, even to where you stand in the heart of the sun -
and I know that, with you for my lady,
I will accomplish great deeds.
My friends laugh at me:
they ask me how I will keep my feet
with my eyes fixed on the heavens.
- But how will I see my goal
if I stare at the ground?
They do not understand what I see in you:
they tell me all cats look alike at night.
- But it was dawn when first I saw you,
and I was most assuredly not seeking cats!
Common trash they call you,
certainly nothing to inspire thoughts of a golden age
that is not, never was, and never will be.
- But were we not all born equal
in the eyes of the Lord?
Why, then you must be a lady,
the equal of any to the manor born,
and, were there never such thing as a golden age,
should we not aspire to seek it
in our dreams, our hearts and our souls?
Even in this age of brass
- yes, even in this age of veriest brass -
I know that, with you by my side,
I shall forge its beginnings.
But,
should I seem not to know you when we pass on the street,
do not laugh.
No, call me not mad
should you see me standing transfixed by a vision,
nor fool should I stumble:
it is just that,
one morning as I stopped to watch the sun rise,
I saw my salvation standing there in its heart,
- yes, there in its very heart -
and was blinded.
Quartier du Village, Pointe-Claire, ca. April 1986
Revised: Ottawa, July 2006
© 2006 P. I. Ross-Ross
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Thread:
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I suppose Dan O’Bannon got some of the Alien ideas from moray eels, with their second set of jaws. Eek.
Fabulous thread!
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Just came up from that rabbit hole… I am now a POD person, and am quite happy about it.
I see this as an awesome opportunity to learn more about node.js. Okay, in my case, anything about node.js.
I haven’t really had time to soak in this yet, but I can see how this really would be a radical restructuring. Ethics would still be a concern, though, as will hacking.
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