Studio 360 this morning included a interview with Hunt Slonem who "lives large and approaches his life as its own work of art. He revels in pleasure, in color, in excess of all kinds. As far as he’s concerned, “Shouldn’t that be what life is about?”
Perhaps he is correct. We did think about avoidance of pain and the experience of pleasure as related to the pursuit of happiness which might be conditioned upon the absence of pain and the presence of pleasure. That is if pleasure rather than meaning is the basis of happiness. Perhaps the excess, the living large, and the concern for pleasure are related. That was my second thought.
And related to that second thought was our discussion on Friday of Mara Fink's MPR piece about the experiences her grandparents and their siblings had in the internment camps where Japanese Americans were placed by the USA government during WWII. Her grandmother insisted that it was not so bad. Her great-uncle recalled playing foot-ball. While there was at least melancholy in both voices and some anger, these two witnesses also hinted that there might have been some small happinesses even within the confines of the barbed wire and lives restricted by government action and popular hysteria. This is not to suggest that those small happinesses remove the injustice, but only to wonder if this extreme situation and others like it are a reminder that large and monumental is not a necessary precondition for glimpses of happiness.
I'm reminded of the oft asserted motto: Think globally, act locally. Can it be modified? Think globally about universal, big matters such as justice, but also notice and savor the small, fleeting joys that give us a taste of happiness that we long to share.
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