Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Foolish enough to talk
The capricious influences which combine to make us happy are never so certain to be absent influences as when we are foolish enough to talk about them.
Wilkie Collins - The Fallen Leaves (1879)
It’s a rum quote this. A fascinating insight, but how are we supposed to talk about it? A bit of a bummer for psychologists and politicians too, but those silent influences are real, and any reflective person knows it.
Gazing at rain-drenched limestone hills and valleys as droplets of rain cling briefly to the brim of my waterproof hood. A fine sight. The Derwent valley filled with early morning mist. Sunrise over misty fields.
It’s not quite happiness, gazing at uplifting sights, but a cousin of happiness. Talk doesn’t add much to it either. Just gaze, enjoy the moment and move on. Wilkie Collins was right.
All the talk in the world won’t capture such moments and won’t tell anyone how to capture them. We could even turn it around and suggest that this is where the Harry and Meghan circus falls over. All talk, talk, talk but just gaze for a moment at what they do. It’s ugly.
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3 comments:
I like the idea of a "cousin of happiness"!
It might be that we talk about happiness, or its extended family, in order to recapture it and somehow fix it so we can find it again. But talking about it makes it slide away and elude us. It's why those moments are so often about solitude and privacy and states which are inaccessible to others and totally incommunicable. Even, perhaps, to those closest to us.
Harry and Meghan, though - they are just public property through and through. A sort of ongoing grubbiness that they seem to enjoy.
The Epicureans believed in 'ataraxia' which is often translated as 'happiness' but a better translation is probably lack of distress or unperturbable comfort. Or even untroubled serenity.
None of which is sparked by a picture of a fluffy bear on a birthday card, or the latest musings of Harry and Megan. Just the opposite really.
Sam - "A sort of ongoing grubbiness..."
I like that - it's just what it is and they do seem to enjoy it.
DJ - as if 'happiness' is the wrong thing to pursue at an individual level. It is a political alternative to introspection and genuine self-awareness, both of which could be politically revealing.
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