Creation, (Happiness 101)

I am a sucker for a good creation story.

Here's one from Nigeria. I learned this a few years ago, but from where I have forgotten. Possibly I heard it on the radio.

In the beginning the Gods created the tortoise, then humans and then the rocks. All were immortal. They lived like this for thousands of years, but one day the tortoises became bored with life, so they went to the Gods and asked permission to have something change. The Gods, decided to let the tortoises’ breed. When they informed the tortoises of their decision, the tortoises were very happy, now, the tortoises could watch their children run around and play and be happy. However, the Gods decided that if there was to be new life, there must also be death. The tortoises didn't understand what death was, but they agreed and thanked the Gods for their decision.

The next morning, when the humans woke they saw all the young tortoises playing around and thought we too would like this pleasure. So they went to the Gods and asked if they also could have children. Yes, said the Gods but you also must have death. Humans didn't know what death was either but like the tortoises they agreed.

That afternoon, the humans heard a great wailing coming from the direction of the tortoises. Such a noise of anguish had never been heard before. Some tortoises had died. The humans watching this new phenomenon of death and the grieving, began to have second thoughts about talking to the Gods, but felt powerless to do anything. So the next morning there was birth, but there was also death among the humans.

Meanwhile the rocks had been quiet. The Gods decided that it was only fair that they ask the rocks if they wanted anything. The rocks seeing death among the tortoises and humans chose to remain silent. So, today there is death among humans and animals but the rocks live forever.

I have finished with the Wonderbox and have been reading David Malouf’s The Happy Life. I have found it to be a very interesting and thought provoking book that looks into what makes a happy life. Although, as the responses to it, included in the book highlight, it is somewhat problematic and a little, but not completely unsatisfactory at conclusion. There were a few gems that I found and they have now sent me off, wanting to read more on the subject

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One of the ideas that I felt interesting was the way Malouf highlights how the notion of happiness has changed down the ages. At the time that Jefferson sat down to write the American Constitution and included the line about the “pursuit of happiness” his idea of happiness, was more a state of being with God and doing good, not, what we think happiness is today. Akin to this is his contemporary, William Penn writing in his Fruits of a Father’s Love, that happiness is the holy fear of God. (For fear, read awe) So happiness at this time was religious in nature and not the feelings that we associate happiness with today.

Another gem for me was the story concerning Plato’s Protagoras of how Epimetheus distributed to each creature that was to inhabit the Earth their own special qualities and characteristics each would need to survive. For example, some animals were given the ability to run fast, others were given the ability to live underground away from animals that would hunt them as prey. Some animals were given fur so that they could survive the elements; others were given fins and the ability to swim etc. You get the picture. Anyway, Epimetheus finished distributing all the qualities and characteristics that he had and only then did he notice that there was one creature he had forgotten and this creature, was you guessed it, human

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Not knowing what to do, Epimetheus turns to Prometheus who decides that humans will just have to live on their own resources. Thus we have to make do on our own and get for ourselves the gifts and talents that were denied us. But what this does is give us the power to think and ruminate over things, to see how the other half live and want what they have, to dream and to covet and be unhappy with our lot when we see others enjoying a life that we can't lead.

Do you get the message? The search for happiness has been with us from the beginning. But also, notions of happiness change. This is important to understand in our own search for happiness. These are the messages that I took from Malouf's book. Go to a library and borrow it. It is a short book, you can read it for yourselves in a couple of hours.

Now for some song lyrics. See if you can remember, sing along even.

What about this, from the Ray Conniff singers?

Happiness is (Happiness is) Happiness is (Happiness is) Happiness is (Happiness is) Different things to different people That's what happiness is.

Or, do you remember The Who's Tommy? Shortly after smashing the mirror and coming out of his withdrawal, Tommy aka Roger Daltrey, breaks into "I'm free". The lyric has been with me ever since I first heard it. I don't even need to google it.

If I told you what it takes to reach the highest high, You'd laugh and say nothing's that simple! But you've been shown many times before Messiahs pointed to the door, But no one had the guts to leave the temple

. And finally, of course there is this one. Is there a more timeless song!

When I'm watching my TV and a man comes on and tells me How white my shirts can be But, he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke The same cigarettes as me

I can't get no. Oh, no, no, no. Hey, hey, hey That's what I say I can't get no satisfaction, I can't get no satisfaction 'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try I can't get no, I can't get no...no satisfaction

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For thousands of years we believed that the Gods fated us with happiness. Or, if we only wait for heaven we will be dwelling in Paradise. Then came the Enlightenment and we thought that happiness could be found in nature or, until at least we either lost our heads, or took heads in the Terror,Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Until now, when happiness is a commodity that we can buy in a bottle, or in a new car. The old religion is on the wane and a more baser religion has arisen. One full of social media, advertising, self help gurus, buy this, buy that, be happy.

In our search, if you will, for happiness, we need to ensure that the happiness that we are looking for is our own and not what someone tries to tell us should make us happy. It need's to be our very own happiness and not someone trying to sell us a new car, or if you only would buy this makeup, or if you were only a little bit more thinner. Or even win the lottery

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So I'm going to dabble into reading a few books in my search for my own happiness. For you, why not think about what makes you happy?

(Looking back over this, I'm thinking you're all thinking. Wow, who is this guy? Is he serious?)

Senses

One night, I was in my house alone, waiting for my then partner to come home from her afternoon shift. I was watching TV when I heard her open the door. As soon as she came in she started yelling at me about gas! It seems that I had cooked my dinner a couple of hours before and left the gas on. I had been walking into the kitchen, sitting metres from the stove and hadn’t smelled anything for over two hours. Whereas, she had smelled the gas the second she opened the front door. Her carrying on was a wakeup call that my lack of smell could seriously harm my health!

So, back to Krznaric's book. He talks about how sight, since the invention of the printing press has become our main sense. But in doing this we miss out on using our other senses to their full potential. In the book, he quotes Helen Keller " I have walked with people whose eyes are full of light, but who see nothing in wood, sea, or sky, nothing in city streets, nothing in books. What a witless masquerade is this seeing!..." How many of us really look at things today. I mean, taking the time to have a really good long look at something. What we need to do is practice training our senses, to get back the wonder of things, to have a really good look at things and make sense of them, rather than just a casual look. What we need to do is close our eyes and let our ears hear. Listen, how many sounds can you hear? Perhaps you hear traffic, or birdsong, people talking. I can hear all these right now. I can also hear my fingers tapping the keyboard and the fan is making a whirring noise on the computer. There is rain striking the window.

I am going to start to practice noticing. It is too late for my sense of smell, but I am going to practice listening to the sounds around me and practice real seeing.

Work

Back in the 1980s, when I was at uni, I found holiday work in an aluminum parts factory. The job began around 3:00 pm and finished at 12:00 midnight. What I was required to do was to stand beneath a conveyor belt, attaching pieces of aluminum to hooks on the belt which transported the metal to a spray paint machine.

Two of us worked at this space, the other guy, a seasoned worker, whose job was to show me the ropes and make sure I could do the job, would give me an earfull if an empty hook went into the spray area. Another problem was that the metal would sometimes cut my hands and there would be blood on it, apparently this affected the quality of the spray painting.

But, do you know what really bugged me? I didn’t have any idea what these pieces of metal were for?

It wasn’t the place for a worker to ask questions, besides; the factory just made aluminum parts, not the complete thing. So there was always this division of labour and it used to upset me as it robbed me of any ownership that I had achieved anything.

I am currently reading The wonderbox: Curious histories of how to live by Roman Krznaric. It is a self-help book, covers a lot of territory already mapped out by those books. However, it can also be read as cultural history, so I do find it interesting. In the book Krznaric looks at various issues – love, work, money, belief to name a few and shows how much our relationship to these has changed over history. The message is that we should look at a lot of our current practices and beliefs and question them.

If you are lucky enough to love your job, that’s fine. However, for the rest of us, so many of our problems with work start from the time of the industrial revolution. This was a time when a lot of the practices that currently exist in the workplace were first raised and practiced. Take Thomas Wedgewood for example,he put into practice, the then nascent metaphor "time is money" by introducing the time clock to the work place. The workers in his factories were the first to punch the clock when beginning and finishing work, pay was docked for lateness. Henry Ford, may have been the first to introduce the assembly line, but he did not invent it. The idea was around in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and his ideas for the pin factory. Workplace practices have come and gone, but the thinking behind these practices remains. Krznaric's book points to how to change the impact of these ideas.

We need to read books like this in order to believe that there is a different way of approaching work; there are different ways that we can get through it. One of the simplest ways, that Krznaric suggests is to listen to the way that we talk about work compared with out leisure time. If we listen to the metaphors we use and change them we can make ourselves happier. For example, we ask for “time off” when we talk about holidays or leisure time. But have we given our employers ownership of our time? Why do we think of something as important as leisure time as “time off”, why can’t we instead, think of it as “ time on”, something that adds value to our lives. Surely something that important is not off time.

I am going to put some of the ideas in Krznaric's book into practice.

In five years time, I'd like to be/ a sailor sailing on the sea,/ but if the ship sinks then I'm done. Yes, I'd like to be a somebody, somebody up in the world,/ but if the ship sinks then I'm done/ A nobody drifting in a somebody's world./

I wrote that poem in Primary School, on the train this morning it just popped in my head. Why? I wonder. Anyway, i've been feeling good these past couple of days. Perhaps, it's because I'm not watching the news or reading newspapers.

The weather in Melbourne over the last few days hasn't been great. Spring started off with a few sunny days and warm weather, but now there's the occasional shower and it is a little cold. The weather forecast for the weekend doesn't look to promising either, a few showers on Saturday and late rain on Sunday. I want to get out into the garden and do something. We went to the market last weekend and bought some plants, so I am keen to get them in the garden. Zhe wants to chop down a couple of trees in the back yard, i've been a bit reluctant but now I think, yeah maybe lets put something else in. Anyway, the weather is going to turn around soon. So I am going to get out there, as part of the new me and all and work in the garden.

As you might have read earlier, Australia has a new government that I don't particularly like so rather than moan, get angry etc. I decided to do something more energizing and part of that something is this blog. Regardless of who is, or isn't reading - though of course I want you to read it. But I have been reading about goal setting, so I have other goals - not necessarily in order A) To develop my cooking skills, so my wife and daughter look forward to my cooking. B) To improve my gardening, so that my garden looks more impressive than it does now and C) To improve my Mandarin language skills.

It's Thursday and that means time to think about what I am going to cook this Saturday afternoon. The weather might not be too good, so I think I'll cook a stew. I've been using recipes from the Pioneer Woman Cooks these last couple of weeks and I can't see any reason to change, so I am going to cook her Sunday Night Stew I hope this is all right to cook on a Saturday and it tastes the same!

There are a few things that I still need to do with this blog, work out what other blogs I'm going to follow and write them up. Hopefully, things will get better so stick around.

Maya Angelou

I remember the first time I came to know about Mary Angelou. I had taken a day off work and was lying around the house. I turned on tv and ended up watching Oprah, and Angelou was a guest and talking about not owning other people's opinions about you. Next day I went to the library and found her books. So here's a link that I like. When she talks about women, I think of humanity. I hope that you don't mind.

A new government... a new beginning.

I use some of a Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation as a subheading for this blog. Have you noticed? The complete quotation goes like this. "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and some absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you should begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." Well we have a new government! Should I put a capital G or keep it small? I'll keep it small because it suits the party and it's how I am going to look at this. A kind of don't sweat the small things approach. Conservative governments tend to maximise my potential for overthinking and ruminating on things, so this time around I am going to bring a halt to this behaviour. I only spent a little bit of time watching television coverage of the election. I spent the weekend gardening and watching Harry Potter movies. There is a few themes that come out of Harry Potter: friendship, growing up, overcoming, self-growth, courage etc. I am going to use a Harry Potter analogy as I face the emotions that are going to come with this change in government. I'll picture Tony Abbott as Voldermort and know that although he rose up and became powerful, he did fall. Time passed for him and time will pass for Tony Abbott and this government. Also, another thing I was thinking on was Simon Sharma's History of Britain episode about the black death, how there was a century of pain with plague and war. But we got through it, we survived. That was a lot worse than the election of a small minded government, and we survived! A few years ago, somebody told me a story about a famous Chinese female doctor. A gynaecologist, as I remember. She was famous for forgetting things, particularly people's names. Apparently she would be introduced to people and very quickly forget the name and then have to go to another person and ask do you know that person's name? All people, that is, except for her patients. She could remember everything there was to know about them. So, I am going to take this on board and only worry about the things that are important to me. The government can go about doing what it wants. Within reason, if it doesn't have an impact on me, then I am not going to worry about, nor dwell on it. Is this whole post an over statment? Probably. it will be worth a laugh later on.

Election Blues

The election is on this weekend. It's got all the makings of an early night I think, with the Labor Party set to go and the Liberal/National Coalition back in power. We should feel ourselves lucky to be able to participate in elections. How many people in the world have no say in who governs them? I have to keep telling myself this as I look forward to what a new government will bring. At least the endless ads will be over soon. I think I read somewhere in a Barbara Fredrickson book that if you want to be happy, one of the simplest things you can do is stop watching the news or reading newspapers. I don't want to be cocooned from what's going on, but I think I might follow this advise for awhile at least.

White shiny stones

My blog used to be called nothing of particular importance. However, I have been thinking about the need to change it.

A while ago now I watched a movie by the Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov. In English, the movie title translated as Anna:From 6 till 18. The movie is a record of Anna's feelings and beliefs over the time period. In the movie they talked about a Russian Poet and how all children of the time knew his poems. There was a particular poem than went "In my pocket, I have a screw. What have you?"

I was thinking about this poem watching my own daughter collect small stones and put them in her pocket.

Wo betide you if you tried to throw those away afterwards.

So I thought, my blog was important if only for me. I was thinking of those dry stone walls. The strongest element of those, isn't the large rocks, but the small ones that surround and hold the big ones in place. Isn't it the same in life?

All the small things add up to something.