There Is No Mystery to Happiness
Unhappy men are all alike. Some wound they suffered long ago, some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of love put out by scorn - or worse, indifference - cleaves to them, or they to it, and so they live every day within a shroud of yesterdays. The happy man does not look back. He doesn’t look ahead. He lives in the present.
But there’s the rub. The present can never deliver one thing; meaning. The ways of happiness and meaning are not the same. To find happiness, a man need only live in the moment; he need only live for the moment. But if he wants meaning - the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life- a man must reinhabit his past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting that we choose between them.
- Jed Rubenfeld, The Interpretation of Murder
**NOTE: since posting this, debate flared up within my peeps, with men generally arguing For the moment, and women Supporting the above perspective. I’m left wondering if there a possible gender consideration, aka more anthropological support of challenging, if not impossible communication between the two sexes?
Could ‘it’ really be a series of random manic moments, some happy, some boring, some sad, some painful, some angry? Where and how does choice come into play? Comfort? Anxiety? What about life deadlines? Environmental factors must also play a role here…
What’s wrong with living in this moment for a moment? What is right with it?
June 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd?
June 12th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I dig this excerpt because it speaks on the juxtaposition of life. Does living in the moment take away from the emotional/spiritual/mental foundations that have made your experiences your life? Or does living in the moment cause you to enjoy your life for what it physically is: a series of moments? Its a phenomenal question and I think the difference in each gender’s belief system is extremely telling in the way each approaches life and relationships. I think I believe in a bit of both ideas. Dependent on the moment. But how do you know what way of thinking to apply to which moments in your life? Now THAT is harder for me.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
You can happily find meaning while living in the present as long as you do it with the right consciousness. Does evolving have to be so dismal? Maybe that’s why there are so many cutters.