Happiness

December 25th 2025

I recently happened to stumble across an online clutch of quotes on Happiness which has prompted this blog. I did notice a certain predictability and mundanity in the quotes which freqently mentioned helping others or putting oneself last. I feel cynical writing that but it also reminded me of how very difficult it is to write convincingly about states of mind. Although I never actually ask myself," Am I happy?" it occurs to me from time to time how very lucky I am, at my age and stage, to have a loving and kind family who stay in touch, visit from time to time, and who somehow, make me feel loved in a quiet, unspoken way. Although most of my week sees me alone, happily reading, enjoying myself on my laptop, writing occasional blogs which take longer to compose as the years totter past; yet I never actually feel alone as in 'lonely'. My local daughter and grand-daughter drop in several times a week which is a delight and which reminds me of how glad I am that I did persuade myself to leave Beloved Brugge to live in Bury St Edwards which has quieter pretensions and practices but offers a similar sanctuary. A fruitful and happy move.

Boethius pictured speaking to students.

Going out, i.e. to go somewhere to listen to music [very occasionally] or to a lecture, or to participate in a discussion, or of course, join my bi-weekly Mah Jong sessions............ all of these are so very welcome and enjoyable though, lately, rather harder to access as walking itself becomes more effortful. It takes determination and tenacity these days to just go to, and do, the things I want to do although I don't have anything wrong with me physically at all!! Except, of course, the unsteady balance which has settled down now to being the norm! Yesterday I saw a local physio who specialises in balance and she advised I drink much more water as I was definitely dehydrated and this might well be contributing to my unsteady balance.She also said that she hoped to be as good as me when she was 91! Frankly, it is difficult to remember to celebrate that which is left; I do tend to demur against the thinning hair, the vocabulary lapses, the slow and slightly unsteady gait, the thickening torso, the absolute ease of forgetting exactly what the hell I was going to do, or write, within minutes of originally deciding! But these developments on the rather more negative side do not, curiously, add up to discontent; perhaps to occasional irritation or to a resigned 'That's life' kind of weary acknowledgement and acceptance!

 The optimism of the cover is invigorating!  

I have just read a refreshing article in the current issue of Philosophy Now entitled, 'Deconstructing Happiness' and discover encouragingly that to Socrates, philosophy was basically about finding the best way to live a life. He watched how life functions within society and examined the influences that shape it. But Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius  [480-524 CE] tries to give a clear picture of what happiness essentially is. He rejects false hopes and through transparent honesty, shows a path that can lead to satisfaction, not to universal fulfillment but to individual contentment. And individual contentment sounds to me like happiness! He asks us merely to consider what we mean by the nature of happiness.  "Do you really hold dear that kind of happiness which is destined to pass away? Do you really value the  presence of Fortune when you cannot trust her (Fortune) to stay and when her departure will plunge you into sorrow?"   Boethius argues that nothing that is ephemeral, transient and temporary can be of any value in terms of happiness for when that happiness ends it is followed by despair which is so hard to bear. He deduces that Fortune's smile, happiness, is a warning of coming disaster. Oh dear; this feels like a fearfulness bred in adverse situations or destructive relationships which some of us, perhaps many of us, experience but nonetheless chiefly cope with, calling up an inner strength perhaps fortified by that same happiness.

Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
"The door of happiness opens inward".

Michel de Montaigne 1533-!592 "We should have
wife, children, goods, and above all health if we can

The essay referred to, looks at the opinions of several philosophers who separately consider how humans strive to find happiness and then, when they actually attain it, realising how fragile and temporary it can be, must work hard to keep it. Basically, the underlying positive conclusion seems to be that to obtain true contentment we must rely on our own internal resources. And perhaps we sensed that all along, for we all know individuals who seem to be thoroughly happy, grounded, capable people who cope well with the ups and downs of life, and others who too readily translate Life's turbulence into a patchwork of misery and apprehension.  Probably the truth of the matter is that there is a mosaic within each of us, with part of us capable of surfing happiness completely when it is available while striving to deal with the drought of melancholy when it inevitably enters, stage left. In fact, happiness is part of the human condition; it is present in all of us and to access it, we merely need an open mind to reach within ourselves and locate it and share it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." U.S. Declaration of Independence"  July 4th 1776.