Happiness is just a thing called Joe.
You must think I'm obsessed with happiness. I write about it a lot. And I sort of am obsessed with it. Can folks over the age of 60 be happy - until death overtakes us? I think "yes." But it's not going to come in the form of some guy named Joe.
One of my favorite writers Joan Chittister, thinks it possible as well. I'm currently reading her Nautilus /Book Award winner, "Happiness."
Happiness is a warm puppy.
But don't think Sister Joan is going to tell us that happiness is a warm puppy. It's way more complicated than that. She's written a book that digs into sociology, biology, neurology, psychology, philosophy, history and the world religions to develop "an archaeology of happiness."
Until the United States of America was founded happiness wasn't even a personal concept. But it says right in our constitution that we should "pursue it."
Happiness is a trip to the mall.
Here's a hint. It has nothing to do with buying stuff and owning stuff - other than meeting our basic needs. Following are some quotes from Joan Chittister's "Happiness" book to help us get a handle on what it is.
It is the point at which we reach a sense of fullness of life, of needing nothing else, of being complete in ourselves.
Using the personal responses of people across 178 countries...researchers rank Denmark as the happiest country in the world, along with Switzerland, Austria and Iceland.....The U.S. ranked...twenty-third.
...happiness...can't be pursued as if it were a product of something outside ourselves. It must be chosen and developed and cultivated beyond things the surveys survey. It is both in us and beyond us. It is the elixir of the spiritual life.
The cellist of Sarajevo, playing his instrument dressed in black tie and tails atop a mound of bombed-out rubble because it was the only way he knew to lift the spirit and touch the souls of the battered and beaten people of the city begging for bread. This is an icon of ecstatic happiness in a brutally unhappy world. It is the ultimate sense of purpose in life, of gift to be given, of a person's awareness of the reason for which they have been born.
Somebody asked me this morning if I thought they would like this book. I didn't quite know how to answer them. The quotes above give you some sort of clue. If you do decide to read the book, prepare to go deep.
***
You must think I'm obsessed with happiness. I write about it a lot. And I sort of am obsessed with it. Can folks over the age of 60 be happy - until death overtakes us? I think "yes." But it's not going to come in the form of some guy named Joe.One of my favorite writers Joan Chittister, thinks it possible as well. I'm currently reading her Nautilus /Book Award winner, "Happiness."
Happiness is a warm puppy.
But don't think Sister Joan is going to tell us that happiness is a warm puppy. It's way more complicated than that. She's written a book that digs into sociology, biology, neurology, psychology, philosophy, history and the world religions to develop "an archaeology of happiness."
Until the United States of America was founded happiness wasn't even a personal concept. But it says right in our constitution that we should "pursue it."
Happiness is a trip to the mall.
Here's a hint. It has nothing to do with buying stuff and owning stuff - other than meeting our basic needs. Following are some quotes from Joan Chittister's "Happiness" book to help us get a handle on what it is.
It is the point at which we reach a sense of fullness of life, of needing nothing else, of being complete in ourselves.
Using the personal responses of people across 178 countries...researchers rank Denmark as the happiest country in the world, along with Switzerland, Austria and Iceland.....The U.S. ranked...twenty-third.
...happiness...can't be pursued as if it were a product of something outside ourselves. It must be chosen and developed and cultivated beyond things the surveys survey. It is both in us and beyond us. It is the elixir of the spiritual life.
The cellist of Sarajevo, playing his instrument dressed in black tie and tails atop a mound of bombed-out rubble because it was the only way he knew to lift the spirit and touch the souls of the battered and beaten people of the city begging for bread. This is an icon of ecstatic happiness in a brutally unhappy world. It is the ultimate sense of purpose in life, of gift to be given, of a person's awareness of the reason for which they have been born.
Somebody asked me this morning if I thought they would like this book. I didn't quite know how to answer them. The quotes above give you some sort of clue. If you do decide to read the book, prepare to go deep.
***
