Happiness
How does one experience happiness?
I have been listening to a series of short stories written by famous Russian writers. One in particular touched me as the world observes the numerous tragedies from the comfort of our homes. The story was written by Anton Chekhov in 1898. It is titled “Gooseberries”. In this short story, the main character is lecturing a group who gathered one night in a small inn. “Look at life: the insolence and idleness of the strong, the ignorance and brutishness of the weak, horrible poverty everywhere, overcrowding, degeneration, drunkenness, hypocrisy, lying --- yet in all the houses and on all the streets there is peace and quiet…. people who live in our town there is not one who would cry out, who would vent his indignation aloud.”
Might I remind you, dear reader, this was written in 1898. And yet, the prose reads stunningly familiar. I watch in sadness as the United States House of Representatives continues to fail as an institution of the greatest democracy in the world. However, we are no longer number one in many measures of great societies. Other countries are taking the top spots on the measures of quality of life, security and support from government.
Regardless of how many children are killed we are still continuing to take sides and support our tribe no matter how they behave. If we are critical we are criticized. Criticized as non-supportive and a heretic to our squad. I heard a man interviewed this morning over the Mideast conflict and he remarked “The Palestinian crisis did not start last Saturday”. A simple yet poignant statement.
Chekhov was correct in his phrasing of the situation of Russian society in the late 1800’s. And here we are still quietly sitting in our homes,,, watching…
Is it our fear of losing our own happiness? Don’t we know that happiness is fleeting? We know that our own happiness will undoubtedly be interrupted by some tragedy or crisis that will befall us. So, we stay close. We keep the door locked in fear that unhappiness will be just outside, while we guard what happiness has come to us.
Can we embrace happiness and take the risk to help those that are unhappy,.?
The crisis did not start last Saturday…
But the solution could start today if we would only open the door…