Some cause happiness wherever they go; the others every time they leave. Oscar Wilde
On February 7th I celebrated a year publishing my Parallel 25 column in El Debate, thanks for reading. It is called that because Los Mochis, Sinaloa, is located there, the place of my roots. That city provides grains and vegetables to Mexico and the world hand in hand with technology and work, but there is also industry, fishing and tourism. Its gastronomy is varied and exquisite. In addition, it offers quality of life near the sea and the mountains. So writing in El Debate on issues not linked to the political situation has been a source of happiness. My intention will continue to be to move through the meridians that locate literature, nature, popular expressions and some phenomena that mark our time such as the incessant search for happiness. This last topic will be the axis of today’s reflection so as not to miss the opportunity to think together again.
Who does not want to be happy?. There are many thinkers who have thought about it since ancient times, some believe that to be happy you have to develop virtues, others that you have to know yourself or be wise… There are even those who maintain that it is a responsibility. Happiness has been seen everywhere: in the fulfillment of desires, in love, in self-realization, and in the ability to live in the present without worrying about the past or the unknown future. In the end, it may be a personal construction. But what does the evidence say about it? Robert Waldinger, the fourth head of the What Keeps Us Happy study at Harvard University, has analyzed the lives of 724 men since 1938. He and his predecessors have been analyzing their lives for more than 75 years.
The study divided them into two groups, the first made up of students who were studying a degree at Harvard that year, all of them finished it and went to fight in World War II. In the second case it was about boys belonging to the slums of Boston who later became workers, masons; some achieved social ascent and others worsened their situation. To the surprise of many, the study concluded that happiness does not lie in money or fame, it lies, among other things, in the type of relationships we establish with those close to us, if they are good and healthy, we will be happier and long-lived There are other aspects that help, such as exercising, eating healthy and having a purpose that makes us get up every day. For his part, the American Walt Whitman (1819-1892) declared in his poem Carpe diem:
Seize the day
don’t let it end
Without having grown a bit
without being happy
Without having fed your dreams
Whitman was based on a Latin phrase by Horace that read: “Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero” (Seize the day, do not trust tomorrow). The Roman legions shouted it every day at six in the morning. The inhabitants of the Island of Okinawa in Japan are the oldest on the planet and within their social practices, in addition to the above, is meeting with friends every day.
Let’s be like them and like the Romans of yesteryear and try to be happy, finding a way is not easy but every day is an opportunity.
#Writing #Debate #reason #happiness