[Vision2020] Happiness is a Choice

[Joseph Campbell]

Nick,

I don't think that happiness is a choice. That is not say that whether or
not I'm happy is a function of choices that I've made! That seems true to
me. But not everyone gets those choices.

Best, Joe


On 1/9/09 1:50 PM, "nickgier at roadrunner.com" <nickgier at roadrunner.com>
wrote:

> Greetings:

I agree that achieving happiness is a choice and it has a lot to
> do with attitude, but the end of the following sentence simply does not make
> sense:

Thus, we¹re more likely to experience happiness if we realize it¹s not
> 
just getting what we want. It¹s learning to want what we get. 

Just one
> problem with this last sentence is the obvious fact that there are lots of
> things we get that we did not desire.

Perhaps some of you saw my column on
> happiness--"Happy Hour is not what Aristotle Had in Mind" at
> www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/happiness.htm.

Nick Gier

---- lfalen
> <lfalen at turbonet.com> wrote: 
> Thanks for the email. Happiness is a choice.
> This reminds me of the story of the lady that went to the Nursing home. She
> said her room was ral nice and she liked it. The attendant said : but you
> haven't even seen it yet."  The lady said " I made up my mind bere I came that
> I was going to like it". Im glad you like Dennes Prager
Roger
-----Original
> message-----
From: Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009
> 06:41:34 -0800
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Happiness is a
> Choice

> Happiness is a Choice
> By Michael Josephson
>
> http://charactercounts.org/michael/
>  
> In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy asks
> Charlie Brown, ³Why do you think we were 
> put on earth?²
> 
> Charlie
> answers, ³To make others happy.² 
> 
> Lucy replies, ³I don¹t think I¹m making
> anyone happy,² and then adds, ³but 
> nobody¹s making me very happy either.
> Somebody¹s not doing his job!²
> 
> People like Lucy are so sure happiness is
> a matter of getting something 
> that they ask not what they can do for others
> but what others can and 
> should do for them. They usually feel shortchanged
> or cheated. They become 
> so preoccupied with what they don¹t have that they
> can¹t enjoy what they 
> do have.
> 
> What¹s more, they don¹t realize one of
> the best ways to be happy is to 
> experience the joy and self-worth of making
> others happy. 
> 
> In his book Happiness Is a Serious Problem, Dennis Prager
> argues that it¹s 
> human nature to want and feel we need more. The problem
> is, the quest for 
> more is endless because we can always add more to
> whatever we have. As a 
> result, the Lucys of the world often live in an ³if
> only² world that keeps 
> them one step away from happiness: ³If only I get
> this raise, make this 
> sale, pay off my debts, or win this game, I¹ll be
> happy.²
> 
> Abraham Lincoln understood that happiness is essentially a way of
> looking 
> at one¹s life. ³A person is generally about as happy as he¹s
> willing to 
> be,² he said. 
> 
> Thus, we¹re more likely to experience
> happiness if we realize it¹s not 
> just getting what we want. It¹s learning
> to want what we get. 
> 
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Stay healthy.
> Stay happy.  Stay informed.
> 
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
> 
> Tom Hansen
>
> Moscow, Idaho
>  
> "For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist
> Universalist 
> Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason
> ever to go 
> to work."
> 
> - Roy Zimmerman
> 
> 
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> This message was sent by First
> Step Internet.
>            http://www.fsr.com/
> 
> 
> 
>
> 

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