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Hi Joe,<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Thanks for the dialogue,<br><br>
Nick<br><br>
t 01:54 PM 1/9/2009, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Nick,<br><br>
I don't think that happiness is a choice. That is not say that whether
or<br>
not I'm happy is a function of choices that I've made! That seems true
to<br>
me. But not everyone gets those choices.<br><br>
Best, Joe<br><br>
<br>
On 1/9/09 1:50 PM, "nickgier@roadrunner.com"
<nickgier@roadrunner.com><br>
wrote:<br><br>
> Greetings:<br><br>
I agree that achieving happiness is a choice and it has a lot to<br>
> do with attitude, but the end of the following sentence simply does
not make<br>
> sense:<br><br>
Thus, weıre more likely to experience happiness if we realize itıs
not<br>
> <br>
just getting what we want. Itıs learning to want what we get. <br><br>
Just one<br>
> problem with this last sentence is the obvious fact that there are
lots of<br>
> things we get that we did not desire.<br><br>
Perhaps some of you saw my column on<br>
> happiness--"Happy Hour is not what Aristotle Had in Mind"
at<br>
>
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/happiness.htm" eudora="autourl">
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/happiness.htm</a>.<br><br>
Nick Gier<br><br>
---- lfalen<br>
> <lfalen@turbonet.com> wrote: <br>
> Thanks for the email. Happiness is a choice.<br>
> This reminds me of the story of the lady that went to the Nursing
home. She<br>
> said her room was ral nice and she liked it. The attendant said :
but you<br>
> haven't even seen it yet." The lady said " I made up
my mind bere I came that<br>
> I was going to like it". Im glad you like Dennes Prager<br>
Roger<br>
-----Original<br>
> message-----<br>
From: Tom Hansen thansen@moscow.com<br>
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009<br>
> 06:41:34 -0800<br>
To: vision2020@moscow.com<br>
Subject: [Vision2020] Happiness is a<br>
> Choice<br><br>
> Happiness is a Choice<br>
> By Michael Josephson<br>
><br>
>
<a href="http://charactercounts.org/michael/" eudora="autourl">
http://charactercounts.org/michael/</a><br>
> <br>
> In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy asks<br>
> Charlie Brown, ³Why do you think we were <br>
> put on earth?²<br>
> <br>
> Charlie<br>
> answers, ³To make others happy.² <br>
> <br>
> Lucy replies, ³I donıt think Iım making<br>
> anyone happy,² and then adds, ³but <br>
> nobodyıs making me very happy either.<br>
> Somebodyıs not doing his job!²<br>
> <br>
> People like Lucy are so sure happiness is<br>
> a matter of getting something <br>
> that they ask not what they can do for others<br>
> but what others can and <br>
> should do for them. They usually feel shortchanged<br>
> or cheated. They become <br>
> so preoccupied with what they donıt have that they<br>
> canıt enjoy what they <br>
> do have.<br>
> <br>
> Whatıs more, they donıt realize one of<br>
> the best ways to be happy is to <br>
> experience the joy and self-worth of making<br>
> others happy. <br>
> <br>
> In his book Happiness Is a Serious Problem, Dennis Prager<br>
> argues that itıs <br>
> human nature to want and feel we need more. The problem<br>
> is, the quest for <br>
> more is endless because we can always add more to<br>
> whatever we have. As a <br>
> result, the Lucys of the world often live in an ³if<br>
> only² world that keeps <br>
> them one step away from happiness: ³If only I get<br>
> this raise, make this <br>
> sale, pay off my debts, or win this game, Iıll be<br>
> happy.²<br>
> <br>
> Abraham Lincoln understood that happiness is essentially a way
of<br>
> looking <br>
> at oneıs life. ³A person is generally about as happy as heıs<br>
> willing to <br>
> be,² he said. <br>
> <br>
> Thus, weıre more likely to experience<br>
> happiness if we realize itıs not <br>
> just getting what we want. Itıs learning<br>
> to want what we get. <br>
> <br>
><br>
> -------------------------------------------------------<br>
> <br>
> Stay healthy.<br>
> Stay happy. Stay informed.<br>
> <br>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.<br>
> <br>
> Tom Hansen<br>
><br>
> Moscow, Idaho<br>
> <br>
> "For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist<br>
> Universalist <br>
> Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason<br>
> ever to go <br>
> to work."<br>
> <br>
> - Roy Zimmerman<br>
> <br>
> <br>
><br>
> ---------------------------------------------<br>
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<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the
application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings
who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
"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." --Ma</font><font size=1>x Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/home.htm<br>
</a>208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
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