Up@dawn 2.0

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide

An Interview With the French Author Who Has Happiness Figured Out

For decades, the French have ranked among the world's most pessimistic people, so it's fitting — in a life-is-a-farce-and maybe-also-merde kind of way — that a Frenchman should write a provocative, possibly even helpful, book about happiness. Frederic Lenoir's Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide was a best seller when it was released in France last fall, and this month, it's been published here, in English, courtesy of Melville House.

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/04/french-author-who-has-happiness-figured-out.html

Monday, April 27, 2015

Simple happiness

When my students ask me why I live in a tiny house, they ask it in light of all the “sacrifices” I am making. They know that I have given away most of my possessions and moved from a large apartment in the city to a 128 square foot custom-built home on wheels in the backyard woods of dear friends. They know I forego running water, internet connection, sewage, and reliable phone reception. I am often surprised to find myself stumbling over my answer, as if defending what I assume to be a perfectly logical decision. Doesn’t everyone want to live more simply, or at least can understand my own deep attraction to it, I think? But alas, in the wise words of Monty Python, “we are all individuals (I’m not!)”.
When I lived in rural Africa, I recognized some jarring facts. Too many to list here. But four that connect to the pertinent question:
1. It was possible to be happy, genuinely happy, while living with fewer material possessions.
2. My body responded well, in health, fitness and mood, to following a schedule more aligned with the natural day and night cycle.
3. Pardon the cliché but the most valuable possessions were not material possessions at all. Observing the daily sunset, hosting friends for days at a time, reading and journaling and letter writing and exploring natural wonders in my spare time all were free and invaluable experiences.
4. I had often confused necessities with luxuries and only when living without them did I realize, sometimes surprisingly, that they were not necessities afterall. Television, electricity, running water and toilet, a telephone and computer, a vehicle…I couldn’t escape the reality that they were all wonderful luxuries and not, by definition, necessary for my survival.
What was necessary to my survival proved to be a rather short list. Healthy food, clean and potable water, heat source, weather-protecting shelter, weather-appropriate clothing, and equally important, friends and intellectual and physical stimulations.
When I returned to life in the US, I couldn’t help but sense a deep, uneasy conviction that life was suddenly, for lack of a better word, plastic. Not plastic in the malleable sense, so much as in the synthetic, phony sense. I felt disconnected…from the earth, from others, from my food source and my waste disposal, from the natural cycle of my body and the earth, and from the productive pursuits I once cherished but now found myself “too busy” to enjoy. How was it that I was now earning literally 40 times my Peace Corps salary and was less healthy, satisfied and deliberate in my daily schedule? I found myself asking, what is it to be rich anyway?
In short, I was not living deliberately here. I was following a social script written and directed by forces outside my control. It felt inauthentic, arbitrary and meaningless.
So, last August I took the plunge…I let go of most of my possessions and moved into a tiny house on wheels because I wanted to see if I could, in the US, live a more deliberate lifestyle reminiscent of my lifestyle in Africa. And so far, several months into it, so good. No inconvenience, all minor to begin with, has offset the multiple positive benefits that continue to come from this change in lifestyle. At least in this time in my life, I believe that I have made the right decision.
 
 LISTEN here...
Joel Boutin is a returned Peace Corps volunteer from Tanzania, and he currently teaches at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, MA. He joyfully resides in a teeny, tiny house on wheels.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

What we should be teaching our children

Yes, but also teach them what Dr. Flicker said in "Annie Hall": the solar system's not dead yet. "We've gotta try to enjoy ourselves while we're here."
 
    
  Why are you depressed, Alvy?
 
    MOTHER 
   (Nudging Alvy) 
  Tell Dr. Flicker. 
   (Young Alvy sits, his head down.  His 
   mother answers for him) 
  It's something he read.

    DOCTOR 
   (Puffing on his cigarette and 
   nodding) 
  Something he read, huh?  

    ALVY 
   (His head still down) 
  The universe is expanding.

    DOCTOR 
  The universe is expanding?

    ALVY 
   (Looking up at the doctor) 
  Well, the universe is everything, and if 
  it's expanding, someday it will break apart 
  and that would be the end of everything!

Disgusted, his mother looks at him.

    MOTHER 
   (shouting) 
  What is that your business? 
   (she turns back to the doctor) 
  He stopped doing his homework.

    ALVY 
  What's the point?

    MOTHER 
   (Excited, gesturing with her hands) 
  What has the universe got to do with it?  
  You're here in Brooklyn!  Brooklyn is not 
  expanding!

    DOCTOR 
   (Heartily, looking down at Alvy) 
  It won't be expanding for billions of years 
  yet, Alvy.  And we've gotta try to enjoy 
  ourselves while we're here.  Uh?

He laughs.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Returning to MTSU, Fall 2015

PHIL 3160:

TTh 4:20 pm, BAS S279
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." Aristotle 
Image result for aristotle"There is no other light, no other shade; this very sun, this moon, these very stars, this very order and disposition of things, is the same your ancestors enjoyed, and that shall also entertain your posterity... The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little. Make use of time while it is present with you." Montaigne
"Formula for our happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a goal." Nietzsche
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one remembers to turn on the light." Albus Dumbledore
Image result for epicurus we must exercise ourselves

Image result for epicurus we must exercise ourselves

Image result for calvin and hobbes happiness 10 cents

For more info, contact Dr. Oliver: phil.oliver@mtsu.edu.