Is "better" the word we're looking for?

 Or reconciled? Accepting? At peace? Happier, maybe? Less charitably: happily deluded?

In any event, it's good to see a positive spotlight on humanism on the front page of the Sunday Times.

An Atheist Chaplain and a Death Row Inmate’s Final Hours

Devin Moss spent a year ministering to convicted killer Phillip Hancock. Together, they wrestled with one question: How to face death without God.
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“It’s well known that people that really believe, that really have faith, die better,” he said. “How can we help people die better that don’t have supernatural faith?” nyt

As noted recently, Andrew Copson, and before him Corliss Lamont, have some ideas on this front. 

So has Professor Dennett. 

 

"People make a mistake in thinking that spirituality [necessarily] 

has anything to do with religion, immateriality, or the supernatural."

The humanist chaplain should consider the words as well of my late great mentor John Lachs in Stoic Pragmatism, about not counting on winning the supernatural afterlife lottery. "I am prepared to be surprised to learn that we have a supernatural destiny, just as I am prepared to be surprised at seeing my neighbor win the lottery. But I don't consider buying tickets an investment."

Better to invest in smelling the roses, loving life, being grateful for the time we've got.

And staying out of prison.

Toast

GK is happy in the morning with his toast and marmalade. I too favor the "nearsighted view" at dawn, which on reflection lends greater clarity, cheer, and ameliorative potential to the rest of the day. And to life.

"This happiness is the result of taking a nearsighted view of life as opposed to the kind in which you wake up and begin thinking about the Middle East…"

https://open.substack.com/pub/garrisonkeillor/p/i-open-the-fridge-and-life-beckons?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

But what does he know?

A guy nicknamed The Melancholy Dane is probably not a reliable authority on this subject.

"People settle for a level of despair they can tolerate and call it happiness." — Søren Kierkegaard

https://www.threads.net/@philosophors/post/C2IQ4VxiF18/

Portals

But don't underrate the value of being healthy. Things did not end well for Virginia.

"Virginia Woolf on being ill as a portal to self-understanding and a way of breaking through our ordinary waking-state perception" https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/05/06/virginia-woolf-on-being-ill/

https://www.threads.net/@mariapopova/post/C2GY6ohxDni/

Kierkegaard: keep on walking

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right. ~Søren Kierkegaard

(Book: The Essential Kierkegaard [ad] https://amzn.to/3TOdRvM)

https://www.threads.net/@philo.thoughts/post/C2C9PbICdwr/

Outrageously happy

https://www.threads.net/@schulzmuseum/post/C19_ZYwLneK/

“Happy people die whole.”

The great poet Robinson Jeffers, born on this day in 1887, on moral beauty, the interconnectedness of the universe, and the key to peace of mind https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/06/03/robinson-jeffers-sister-mary-james-power/

https://www.threads.net/@mariapopova/post/C17Ex-MOjZH/

Embodied connection

Taking a Cue From the Squirrels in My Birdhouse

"...To make it through the gathering disquiet, I will need embodied connection. As my wild neighbors did in the uncheery newness of an inhospitable morning, as I did myself in all the lovely places I visited on book tour, and in the company of dear friends on New Year’s Eve, I will need to seek comfort in the warmth of others this year. Whenever the cold creeps in, wherever the dark night pools, I will need to look for others. I will need not pixels but voices. Not distances but reaching hands." --Margaret Renkl https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/opinion/new-year-nature.html?smid=em-share

Stephen Hawking happy

When asked about living with [ALS, Lou Gehrig's ] disease, he told an interviewer that he was "happier now" than before he became ill. "Before, I was very bored with life. I drank a fair bit, I guess; I didn't do any work . . .When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything that one does have."

https://open.substack.com/pub/thewritersalmanac/p/the-writers-almanac-from-monday-january-645?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Marcus Aurelius on How to Begin Each Day: The Stoic Recipe for Unassailable Sanity and Inner Peace – The Marginalian

And: recall daily how preciously privileged we are, in the first place, to be breathing at all.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/08/13/marcus-aurelius-meditations-begin-each-day/