A Loss Of Happiness

My mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years…  Poetry of many kinds… gave me great pleasure…  Pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight…  But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry…  Music generally sets me thinking too energetically on what I have been at work on, instead of giving me pleasure.  I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did.
…
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive.  A man with a mind more highly organised or better constituted than mine, would not, I suppose, have thus suffered;  and if I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week;  for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use.  The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.
—     Charles Darwin
From:  “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin: 1809-1882“
[Originally found at one of the blogs / websites I follow:  https://www.themarginalian.org/
The specific post is:  https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/11/28/darwin-life/
Please visit the original site if you have a some time…    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2020	Wear A Damn Mask!
	I Can’t Stay For Long
	Boxing (#2): First Lessons
2019	A Surprisingly Good Way
	It’s Official X-mas (Tree) At Home
2018	Weight / Health Update
	What’s Happening With You?
2017	The Great Leveler
	Conservative Depressions
2016	Election + 1 Month
2015	Dance And Sing
2014	A Measuring Stick For Progress
2013	Courtly Love Or Victory Over Habit
2012	Have We Met?
2011	Efficiently Useless

Read Full Post »

Why Republicans Are Unhappy

It is necessary to the happiness of a man that he be mentally faithful to himself.  Infidelity does not consist in believing or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe.
—     Thomas Paine
[If Republicans believe in Democracy and the right of the people to choose their government’s leaders, why have they spent almost ten months denying the results of (and trying to overturn) an election they lost so decisively?  And why have they spent the same amount of time trying to limit the ability of voters to vote in future elections?  Maybe T. Paine has explained the unhappiness (and rage) of current Republicans.  When will the true political conservatives stand up and challenge the crazies who have taken over their party?  Lord knows, they’ve been wandering in the dessert for over forty years now…    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2020	A Tiny And Fragile World
	Your Lyin’ Eyes
2019	Day 1: Done
	#IncompetentDonald Fails On All Three
2018	I Put It Down To Bad Teachers
	Day 34: In And Out
2017	And The Future Is Now
2016	I Am
2015	Positively Aiming Higher
2014	Suspicious Minds
2013	We Are Not Alone
2012	Lawyer, n.
2011	Each Day Remember…
2010	Impossible Dreams of Camelot

Read Full Post »

Or The Person You Love

Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands.
—    Japanese Proverb
.
On This Day In:
2020	The Chain Must Be Broken
	Back To Me…
2019	Love Like This…
2018	Open Hearts Find Strength
	Day 32: Planning The Future
2017	Thinking Out Loud
2016	Fighting Change
2015	Get Change
2014	Trapped (Again)
2013	Someone Else Believes
2012	The Practical Value of Science
2011	Seize Gladly The Difficult Task
	A Constitutional Conversation
2010	The Fierce Urgency Of Now…

Read Full Post »

Your First Important Clue

That is the first important clue to your life design — the discovery of what you’ll be happiest doing.
—     Barbara Sher
.
On This Day In:
2020	Stand First
	RNC: Day 1 Thought
2019	Tough Values
2018	I’m Still Here
	Day 31: A Calendar Month
2017	Start Typing
2016	Just Saying (Nothing)
	Thought Of You
	Saldaga (“As I’ve Lived”)
2015	A Terrifying Cycle
2014	Rights
2013	Do Bold Things
2012	Seven Causes
2011	I Feel A Tingle Coming On

Read Full Post »

Bringing It

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it, and no happiness in any place except what you bring to yourself.
—    Henry David Thoreau
.
On This Day In:
2020	Me Neither
2019	Have Forever
2018	Fear, Racism And Greed
	Reaching Out To The Missing
	Very Nearly
2017	We Can Figure This Out
2016	Just Enough
2015	Bourne Bond
	Springs Eternal
2014	Brains First
2013	Not Listening Anymore
2012	At Your Marks!
2011	We Are Not Alone
	Underlying Rationality
2010	Is the Obama Administration Failing?
	In Other Words…
	Quite Please!
	In A Hostage Situation…
	Are We Done Yet?
	In Order…
	Flip-flopping…
	Proof of Choice…
	On “Leading” A Democracy To War…
	Actually, It’s All About Me…

Read Full Post »

Maybe He Agreed With His Mum

We can only be happy when we don’t assume that the object of life is happiness.
―    George Orwell
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
―    John Lennon
.
On This Day In:
2020	Imagine Existence
	Posing As Action
2019	Voices Of The Past
2018	Sunrises, Rainbows And Newborn Babies
2017	Untold Agony
2016	Just Borrowed
2015	Warning
2014	Always More Productive
2013	Is Not
2012	Loosely Translated
2011	Your Opinions Are Not My Facts

Read Full Post »

Awakening The Glow

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him
—    Albert Camus
.
On This Day In:
2020	Golden Eagle
	Like #45: Incompetent Donald
2019	#45: Who Lost By Three Million Votes
2018	Torn Between Two Loves
	A Girl And A Boy
2017	I Think They Are Starting To…
2016	Living There
2015	Bookin’ West
	Beyond My Reach
	You Never Call Anymore…
2014	Winning?
2013	Still Inventing
2012	Motivated
2011	Waiting In Line At Starbuck’s

Read Full Post »

Seeking Happiness

Love alone is the only reasonable activity or pursuit of humankind . . .   For love not only annihilates our fear of meaningless but empowers us to seek the happiness of others.   And this indeed is our greatest happiness.
—    Leo Tolstoy
.
On This Day In:
2020	Expectation For The Near Future
2019	Indian Myth
	Did He Even Have The Courage To Ask?
2018	Nothing
2017	Approval First
2016	In Search Of Words
	Day 2 – Blending
2015	At What Price?
2014	Intricate And Subtle Order
2013	Attention To Detail
2012	Aequanimitas!
2011	Consider This

Read Full Post »

Blessings Larger Than Life

The giver is bigger than the receiver.  If you want to be large, larger than life, learn to Give.  Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get – only with what you are expecting to give – which is everything.
The importance of giving, blessing others can never be over emphasized because there’s always joy in giving.  Learn to make someone happy by acts of giving.
—    Katharine Hepburn
(This quote was found on Facebook)
.
On This Day In:
2020	The Sun Came Out
	Not A Wink On Guard
2019	The Importance Of A Deadline
	Chaos Is Not Really A New Remedy
2018	History Will Judge Harshly
	Father Time, Perhaps?
2017	Odds Are
2016	Prayer, Too
2015	History, n.
2014	See It Sometime
2013	Precious Friend
2012	It Couldn’t Be Done
	Feeling Surrounded?
2011	Surprise!

Read Full Post »

Little And Large Choices

Decide that Joy is the hue you want your heart to be.  Then start making the little and large choices that over time will paint your heart happy.
—    Thomas Kinkade
.
On This Day In:
2020	When?
2019	Two Guides
2018	A Call For You
2017	Because I Read
2016	On What Matters…
2015	Social Security
2014	Bewitching
2013	Visiting Joy
2012	Dedication To Today
2011	Project Second Chance – Adult Literacy
	Turning Coal Into Diamonds

Read Full Post »

Two Happy

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished;  but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.
—    Attributed to Montesquieu
(Full name:)  Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
—    Rita Mae Brown
.
On This Day In:
2019	Stand Up, Hook Up, Shuffle To The Door…
2018	Ridiculous Idea
2017	Waddle On!
	A Severe Challenge — When The President Is A Liar
2016	The Best Of Circumstances
2015	Reverberating Silence
2014	Wrong Again?
2013	Improper Faith
2012	One More Rung
2011	Sunday Morning Earlies (Hugging trees and smiling…)
	Hurry
	Updates On Life
2010	It’s Gettin’ Deep In Here

Read Full Post »

Minute Fractions Of Happiness

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions – the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, or heartfelt compliment.
—    Samuel Taylor Coleridge
.
On This Day In:
2019	Far Too Often
2018	A Divided / United Nation
2017	What We Want
2016	To The Extent
2015	Ambition
2014	More Branches To Climb
	Just In Time — Happy Thanksgiving (2014)
2013	For And Against
2012	De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
2011	Similar And Different
2010	Reminiscing
	Differences

Read Full Post »

Why I’m Happy

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.
—   Victor Hugo
.
On This Day In:
2019	I Think Impeachment Is Another Test #45 Has Already Failed
2018	Second Chances – Rice, Now Trees
	And Then You Have To Start Training Again
2017	Small Hands, Small Grasp
2016	Two Murrow’s
	Election + 1 Week
2015	Not Mine, Anyway
2015	South By South East
2013	Don’tcha
2012	I Hear A Distant Thunder
2011	A Poison Tree

Read Full Post »

I Just Want To Stay Happy

Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past, what to enjoy in the present, and what to plan for in the future.
—   Arnold H. Glasow
.
On This Day In:
2019	Show Righteousness, Not Fear
2018	Sounds Like Politics, Too
2017	Resist More
	Conservatives Are Not The Enemy
2016	Two Weeks To Go…
2015	Remembering
2014	The Creeping Death Of Civilization
	Orange October (X) – A Blue Morning Turns Into An Orange Evening
2013	License Problem
2012	Giants Win Game 2 Of The 2012 World Series 2 To 0!!!
	Adage, n.
	Questions Women Should Ask Before Voting…
2011	What Are You Looking At?

Read Full Post »

Voting Has Consequences

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.
—    Freya Stark
[I cannot understand how anyone who loves this country can vote for #IncompetentDonald who has spent the last four years running this country into the ground.  MAGA???   Give me a break!!  He claims “He” rebuilt the National Defense?  With his personal income taxes paid of $750 in two of the last four years and NOTHING at all in 11 of the last 18 years reviewed by the New York Times?  IF the American military is any better off than it was four years ago, it’s not because HE has contributed to it!  VOTE like our country depends on YOUR vote, because it DOES!   —     KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2019	Mutually Exclusive
2018	Basic Rights
2017	Thoughtful Attitudes
	Surprise!!
2016	The Bell Tolls
2015	It Is What It Is
2014	What Have You Learned (Gently) Lately?
	Orange October (I)
2013	Ignore The Man Behind The Curtain
	For A Time
2012	What Are Your True Measurements
2011	What It Is All About
2010	The Magnificent Seven
	Giants Fever!!

Read Full Post »