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More Thoughts on Happiness: Part 5
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013 06:08 pm[This is the final part of a multi-part post that starts here]
All the above won't do any good if performed with grim seriousness. The Romans made much of gravitas, but I prefer the eccentric Roman poet Horace, who said "Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans; it's lovely to be silly at the right moment." (I once quoted this on a Stoic forum; it didn't go down well.) Of course we sometimes need to be serious in the sense of committed—the goals part won't work otherwise—but we also need a sense of perspective that adds some lightness and playfulness. One way to gain such perspective is to keep reminding yourself that the universe has been around for approximately 14 billion years and contains an estimated septillion stars. (That's a real number; I didn't make it up.) Our goals, insofar as they reflect our values, are the most important things we have, yet they have no impact on the universe worth speaking of. This is unfortunate, given that we generally assess the importance of our actions by their impact. Welcome to your existential crisis.
There are two ways out of the existential crisis (three if you count becoming an Existentialist). One is mysticism. If you can see the universe in a grain of sand, you probably don't have a problem. The other is playfulness, which means joyfully accepting that your actions both do and do not have significance. Whether life is a game is a question way out of the scope of this post, but life certainly has some things in common with games, particularly the paradox that the goal of the game is both important (since without it, the game would not be a game) and unimportant (because it's only a game). Or as Plato put it: "Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest."
So there you have it: have suitable goals in accordance with your values, appreciate what you have, regard others kindly, employ reason and self-awareness to reduce destructive emotions, and adopt a playful attitude. I'm not saying this is a magic formula, but these principles do strike me as summing up the 20% of practices that could produce 80% of our potential happiness.
5. Adopt a playful attitude
All the above won't do any good if performed with grim seriousness. The Romans made much of gravitas, but I prefer the eccentric Roman poet Horace, who said "Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans; it's lovely to be silly at the right moment." (I once quoted this on a Stoic forum; it didn't go down well.) Of course we sometimes need to be serious in the sense of committed—the goals part won't work otherwise—but we also need a sense of perspective that adds some lightness and playfulness. One way to gain such perspective is to keep reminding yourself that the universe has been around for approximately 14 billion years and contains an estimated septillion stars. (That's a real number; I didn't make it up.) Our goals, insofar as they reflect our values, are the most important things we have, yet they have no impact on the universe worth speaking of. This is unfortunate, given that we generally assess the importance of our actions by their impact. Welcome to your existential crisis.
There are two ways out of the existential crisis (three if you count becoming an Existentialist). One is mysticism. If you can see the universe in a grain of sand, you probably don't have a problem. The other is playfulness, which means joyfully accepting that your actions both do and do not have significance. Whether life is a game is a question way out of the scope of this post, but life certainly has some things in common with games, particularly the paradox that the goal of the game is both important (since without it, the game would not be a game) and unimportant (because it's only a game). Or as Plato put it: "Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest."
So there you have it: have suitable goals in accordance with your values, appreciate what you have, regard others kindly, employ reason and self-awareness to reduce destructive emotions, and adopt a playful attitude. I'm not saying this is a magic formula, but these principles do strike me as summing up the 20% of practices that could produce 80% of our potential happiness.
