Of course I had to read the lead essay right then and there.
Yesterday, in class, when I laughed at one of my own "jokes," I told them that if I, like Chrysippus, should die laughing, they should make no attempt to revive me. "It is the best way to die--laughing" I told them.
A sense of humor is so valuable. After all, the older we get, life can get more sucky than ever. Getting old ain't for sissies. With a sense of humor, we will be able to laugh them away.
The silly happiness, I have come to realize, lies on a foundation of contentment. A peaceful sense of contentment even when I drown in my own sorrows.
Of course, poets have written about all these and more. Well, not about dying while laughing, but about feeling content.
I went to my go-to-site for poems. And was reminded of this one.
Yes, "Be still, I am content ... joy [is] a flame in me"
4 comments:
This is spooky ! That issue of the The Economist has not yet come to me - it usually comes on Saturdays. But I was listening to the Economist Podcast which featured the interview with Atul Gawande just before I am reading your post and commenting.
It is a big big issue , uncomfortable to many, but essential to everyone - the choices to be made as we reach the end of our lives. Of course, you are the most prolific thinker on the subject that ever lived. You haven't raved about it for quite a while now, actually ever since the orange haired man caught your fancy !!
I tell ya, it is the story of my life ... when I say stuff, nobody listens. But, when the Economist writes about it, oooooooohhhh ;)
The longer we humans live, the bigger this problem becomes.
In addition to personal decisions that each and one of us has to make, it also becomes a huge reversal of history in how we end up transferring wealth from the young to the old. It is one heck of an inter-generational war that the young have no idea about and they have no idea that they have already lost the war.
No No. On this issue, I freely acknowledge that you are the master in the world. The Economist pales into comparison in front of your expertise.
Ooooooohhh ... thanks, my friend.
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