The happy sentiment of connection and continuation

 My comment on GK's column of appreciation for the opportunity to continue doing good work, as an octagenerian.

"I want these road shows to touch people and send them away happy." Clearly they do. And that's a fine sentiment, to want and work for the happiness of strangers... especially in your 81st year, a time when most in our culture settle for irrelevance and consignment to the sidelines.

Sentiment, after all, is just a feeling of connection and care; and sentiment for the past is just a feeling of gratitude for the journey that brought us to where we find ourselves here and now (when we might have been nowhere, no how).

Looking forward to seeing you in September.

GARRISON KEILLOR AND FRIENDS

The show goes on in the Shenandoah Valley

The Column: 07.17.23

==

Phil Oliver

Writes Up@Dawn@substack

An admirable legacy of BS

Harry G. Frankfurt, Philosopher With a Surprise Best Seller, Dies at 94

"...The essay was originally published in the journal Raritan in 1986, but it was not popularized until nearly two decades later, in January 2005, when Princeton University Press repackaged it as a small, spaciously lined 80-page book. It was an unexpected commercial hit, becoming a No. 1 New York Times best seller. Soon Professor Frankfurt was making television appearances on "60 Minutes," the "Today" show and "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart."

The book's popularity seemed to be fueled in part by the recent re-election of President George W. Bush, many of whose critics viewed his administration, with its purported dismissal of what one Bush aide called the "reality-based community," as exemplifying the very blitheness about truth that Professor Frankfurt had described..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/books/harry-g-frankfurt-dead.html

Hustle culture kills happiness. Here’s how to escape it.

https://bigthink.com/the-well/how-hustle-culture-kills-happiness/

The new rich

https://www.instagram.com/p/CujtcCBPj4s/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

Ordinary happiness

"Happiness is in the quiet, ordinary things.
A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife
stuck between the pages.
And the petal falling from the rose,
and the light flickering as we sit silent."

― Virginia Woolf https://www.threads.net/t/Cuhg9AwuU8C/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

Aristotle’s Rules for Living Well

… we are all Aristotelians, most of the time, even when forces in our culture briefly persuade us that we are something else. Ethics remains what it was to the Greeks: a matter of being a person of a certain sort of sensibility, not of acting on "principles," which one reserves for unusual situations of the kind that life sporadically throws up. That remains a truth about ethics even when we've adopted different terms for describing what type of person not to be: we don't speak much these days of being "small-souled" or "intemperate," but we do say a great deal about "douchebags," "creeps," and, yes, "assholes."

…
—Nikhil Krishnan

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/how-to-flourish-an-ancient-guide-to-living-well-aristotle-susan-sauve-meyer-book-review

Talk happiness with Arthur Brooks at The Atlantic Festival

Stream for free, end of September: As the resident happiness columnist at The Atlantic, I've had the pleasure of thinking, writing, and podcasting about the many ways that you and I can build happier lives. Because to me, happiness is not just a feeling. It's something we can study, understand, and apply in practice. There is a science to it all, and I've made it my life's work to share what I've learned with as many people as possible. I'm excited to share those insights with you at this fall's Atlantic Festival, where I'll be hosting the happiness forum on Friday, September 29.   At the forum, you'll hear from people who think, research, and write about the pursuit of happiness—and, together, we'll explore the steps we can all take toward a more joyful existence. You can join me and some very special guest speakers virtually from anywhere, or in-person at The Wharf in Washington, D.C.  Our list of guests includes Cheryl Strayed, the author of the best-selling memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail; Robert Waldinger,the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development (the longest study on human well-being ever done); and some of the world's top journalists, psychologists, faith leaders, philosophers, and scholars. Along with live conversation, there will be plenty of time and space to connect with one another and to reflect on lessons that I hope will last the rest of your life.   The complete agenda for The Atlantic Festival will be released on August 1, with more great speakers to come. However you plan on joining, I hope you'll leave with a deeper understanding of happiness and how to enjoy the pursuit. I'd love to see you there.   Best,

Arthur C. Brooks

The happy academic

Give it up...

https://open.substack.com/pub/philoliver/p/give-it-up?r=35ogp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=post%20viewer

Kant on happiness

He thought we should aim not at happiness per se, but at worthiness to be happy. That places the focus more on "something to do"...

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Let it go

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