On Happiness ~ Over Time

I was talking with a friend of mine from Singapore the other day over a weekend, who asked me whether there were any topics I revisited over time that I occasionally wrote about.  

I was inspired by that question.  Upon reflection, the topic of happiness came to mind as one that I have revisited once every few years in the spirit of the examined life.  I can’t say that my thinking has 'evolved' as much as I have approached it from different perspectives.

To start with, I would like to acknowledge that my 'pursuit of this topic' started with Jefferson's famous phrase.  

Bust of Jefferson at Boston MFA

It seems to me that Thomas Jefferson as the architect of freedom and democracy and Abraham Lincoln as its savior stand as stalwarts of mankind, in ushering societies into a modern sensibility of what it means to live in freedom and towards what end.  Indeed, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address would be the two recorded testaments in this regard.

Interestingly, the pursuit of happiness phrase has a wide range of interpretation, most cynically representing the modern rat race.  Also, Jefferson was a fan of Epicurus.  Now there is a Philosopher who is wildly misunderstood, and in fact the description 'epicurean' has become a stand-in for hedonistic.  One might be forgiven for saying, 'of course, Jefferson was an Epicurean,' given the controversies surrounding him.  But that would be doing an injustice to the path he set this country on and the energy he was able to infuse the rest of the world with.

This is what Jefferson had to say about Epicurus in a letter to a friend in 1819.  “I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.  One of his canons, was that “that indulgence which prevents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater pain, is to be avoided.  It will lead, in its progress, to a suspension of healthy exercise, a relaxation of mind, an indifference to everything around you, and finally to a debility of body, and hebetude of mind, the farthest of all things from the happiness which the well-regulated indulgences of Epicurus ensure; fortitude, you know is one of his four cardinal virtues. That teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them, like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain, for they will meet and arrest us at every turn of our road.”

We the run the risk in our modern globalized lives of mistaking the pursuit of happiness for the rat race, corporate or otherwise.  And as mentioned earlier Epicurean philosophy to be hedonistic.  

Perhaps the concepts of happiness and leading the good life are worth examining thoughtfully and over time.

Cabiria

Cabiria, played by Giulietta Masina in Federico Fellini’s movie, Nights of Cabiria, is a woman of ‘low character,’ in a story set in post WWII Italy.  Cabiria by the end of the movie falls into an abyss with no hope of recovery.

But as this final shot in the movie shows, Cabiria is smiling through her tears.  It occurs to me that her smile is neither of defiance nor of optimism; it is one of spiritedness.

That, at least for me represents the essence of Jeffersonian and Epicurean aspirations for happiness.