[Vision2020] Happiness is a Choice

Fri Jan 9 14:10:05 PST 2009

Hi Joe,

I should have been more clear.  For Aristotle 
happiness is the result of developing an ensemble 
of virtues.  Although the virtues start very 
early in childhood, I think a good case can be 
made that as we mature real choices are made 
every day to enforce and enhance the virtues.

Thanks for the dialogue,

Nick

t 01:54 PM 1/9/2009, you wrote:
>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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"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the 
application of it to human affairs."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates 
in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."
  --Mohandas Gandhi

"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of 
any system cannot be discovered by dividing it 
into its component parts and studying each part 
by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed 
on the whole and on the interconnection between 
the parts. The same is true of our intellectual 
life. It is impossible to make a clear cut 
between science, religion, and art. The whole is 
never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." --Max Planck

Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/home.htm
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
http://www.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/ift.htm

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