Squishy and difficult

Chapter 50

Continuing with the happiness theme, Allen says that people with varied interests live the longest and are the happiest. Is having varied interests a virtuous activity? I am not sure. Obviously happiness is a squishy difficult concept to nail down and define clearly. And I am not even sure we should be pursuing happiness, but we do. Why I am not sure, but people make all kinds of poor decisions is this pursuit, which ironically never makes them happy. Heck I am even sitting here considering unwise actions because I am thinking about my happiness.

Maybe happiness is a byproduct of not thinking about your happiness? I mean varied interests and virtuous activities are both busy busy actions and will keep you from thinking about yourself very much and both Aristotle and Allen argue that these will help lead you toward happiness. So I don’t know, maybe those who think least about their happiness are the happiest? Squishy and difficult.

And when does happiness arrive? Is it a feeling? An emotion? A brainfart? An idea? A place? A circumstance? A situation? A context? Relationships? Yes and maybe.